Maurice Papon, Convicted Vichy Official, 96, Dies
Maurice Papon, a prominent French functionary convicted in 1998 of complicity in Nazi crimes against humanity during the German occupation in World War II, died yesterday at a private clinic near Paris. He was 96.
He underwent heart surgery related to his pacemaker on Tuesday, and died in his sleep, said his lawyer, Francis Vuilleman, The Associated Press reported.
In the end, Mr. Papon served less than three years of his 10-year sentence for deporting hundreds of Jews to their deaths in German concentration camps from southwestern France, where he was an official of the Vichy government, which collaborated with the Germans. He always protested that he had done only what the Germans had made him do.
He appealed after his trial ended in April 1998, but fled to Switzerland the next year rather than go to jail, where French law required him to be before his appeal could be heard.
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He underwent heart surgery related to his pacemaker on Tuesday, and died in his sleep, said his lawyer, Francis Vuilleman, The Associated Press reported.
In the end, Mr. Papon served less than three years of his 10-year sentence for deporting hundreds of Jews to their deaths in German concentration camps from southwestern France, where he was an official of the Vichy government, which collaborated with the Germans. He always protested that he had done only what the Germans had made him do.
He appealed after his trial ended in April 1998, but fled to Switzerland the next year rather than go to jail, where French law required him to be before his appeal could be heard.