Maurice Papon

Uncommon card · No. 97440

Maurice Papon (French: [mɔʁis papɔ̃, moʁ-]; 3 September 1910 – 17 February 2007) was a French civil servant, mass murderer and Nazi collaborator who was convicted of crimes against humanity committed during the occupation of France. Papon led the police in major prefectures from the 1930s to the 1960s, before he became a Gaullist politician. When he was secretary general for the police in Bordeaux during World War II, he participated in the deportation of more than 1,600 Jews. He is also known for his activities in the Algerian War (1954–1962), during which he tortured insurgent prisoners as prefect of the Constantinois department, and ordered, as prefect of the Paris police, the 1961 Paris massacre of pro-National Liberation Front (FLN) demonstrators for violating a curfew that he had "advised". In 1961, Maurice Papon was personally awarded the Legion of Honour by French President Charles de Gaulle, whose government had been struggling with the FLN insurgency. Papon also commanded the...

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