Papon Quotes

According to historian Henri Rousso, France’s ‘obsession’ with the Vichy years began in the mid-1970s (1990:19). Six years later Vichy, un passé qui ne passé pas (Conan and Rousso 1996) reminded us that the ‘dark years’ remained very much in the public eye throughout the 1990s, kept alive by a series of highly mediatised events: the trials of Vichy functionaries René Bousquet (assassinated in June 1993 before coming to trial), Paul Touvier, and Maurice Papon; the apparent discovery of the ‘Jewish file’ (le fichier juif); the heated controversy surrounding then-president Mitterrand’s annual laying of a wreath on Pétain’s tomb and his handling of the Vel d’Hiv commemoration, followed some two years later by the calling into question of the president’s Resistance credentials; debates surrounding the status of Resistance heroes Jean Moulin and Lucie and Raymond Aubrac; President Chirac’s (more successful) management of the Vel d’Hiv commemoration, and the scandal surrounding ‘father Pierre’.