Papon in Perspective

The trial of Maurice Papon for crimes against humanity, which finished on April 1st this year, was messy. In part this springs from the fact that the crimes under examination, i.e. the participation of French civil servants in the deportation of Jews from the area around Bordeaux between 1942 and 1944, took place such a long time ago. Testimonies were full of rambling irrelevance. Witnesses were old. Papon himself is eighty-seven. In intellectual terms he is sharp, but physically he is frail. The trial had to be interrupted while he was in hospital and was suspended for several days because his wife died as his main defence counsel began a final address to the court.