FRANCE: Convicted French Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon is buried with his State medal, Legion of Honour

Convicted French Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon was buried wearing his Legion of Honour medal in controversy. Convicted French Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon was buried on Wednesday afternoon (February 21) wearing his Legion of Honour medal which was taken away from him by the State after he was convicted in 1998 of complicity in crimes against humanity. About 40 people were gathered around the grave. No elected official was present at the funeral to honour Papon who was a successful politician after the war and became a minister before his past caught up with him. He was found to have approved the transport of more than 1,500 Jews to a transit camp on the way to Auschwitz and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Due to poor health, he was released in 2002, and since then had lived at home near Paris. " I consider that the judgement that convicted Papon is a shame as much as the one that convicted Dreyfus in another time," said Olivier De Sarnez, President of the National Association of the French Resistance Medal. After the funeral, his lawyer revived the controversy and responded to the politicians who asked for Papon to be buried without his decoration. "The politicians can keep barking, I am not impressed. I have kept my word. The commander's Legion of Honour cross, received from the hands of General De Gaulle, protects Maurice Papon's soul for eternity," said Francis Vuillemin, Papon's lawyer. During the war, some 75,000 French Jews were sent to extermination camps; only 2,500 came back. With the Papon trial, France rediscovered a dark side of its own state apparatus, but also found that three-quarters of its Jews had been able to escape deportation because they were helped by their fellow citizens.

ITN Source | February 22, 2007