1. The Trial of Papon the bureaucrat.
2. The Trial Papon, as the symbol of the French collaborators.
3. The trial of Papon, as the symbol of the French society under German occupation.

The trial of Papon, the individual.
The central question - Does a bureaucrat has the right to sacrifice the lifes of others, for the sake of his career? Papon could have resigned. He collaborated for the sake of his career. I hope that the court will find him guilty.

The trial of the Vichy government,:
The Vichy regime, enjoying popular support, adopted anti-Semitic policies, to use Jews as scapegoats for the saving of the French national honor - they were blamed for the defeat of the 1940. The regime linked national revival with anti-Semitism; Jews were officially blamed for all ills of the society, from high prices to food shortages. When the Final Solution began, the Vichy government volunteered to round up and hand over to the Germans all the foreign Jews from the Un-occupied Zone of France.

The anti-Semitic policies of the Vichy government, the identification of the Jews, stamping of the ID and the ration cards with the word Juife (Jew), the internment of Jews, the extensive use of French police in roundups, helped the Nazis in the Final Solution. They were already found guilty.

The Trial of the French society.
As the atrocities of the Germans became known, the scenes from the deportations moved the conscience of the French people, limiting the vigor of the French help. This change was brought about by the openly condemnation of the German bestialities by the French clergy.

First to raise his voice in the defense of the Jews was Monsignor Jules-Gerard Saliege, the partly paralysed arch-bishop of Tolouse:

"That children, that women, fathers and mothers be treated like cattle, that members of a family be separated from one another and dispatched to an unknown destination, it has been reserved for our own times to see such a sad spectacle. ....the Jews are real men and women. Foreigners are real men and women. . . They are a part of the human species. They are our brothers like so many others."

"I give voice to the outraged protest of Christian conscience, and I proclaim that all men, Aryans or no-Aryans, are brothers,because created by the same God; that all men, whever their race or religion, have the right to be respected by individuals and by states. "

France was one of the countries controlled by the Germans at the early stages of war, but it had a high level of democratic tradition of Liberte, Fraternity and Egalite. In France about 75000 Jews perished out of a population of 350,000, about 70% survived. Many factors contributed to the relatively high survival rate, the most important factor was the attitude of the silent majority, who made it difficult of the Germans to identify and catch the Jews. Even the local police cooperated only reluctantly with the Germans, Jews were provided with false identification papers, given shelter and moral support.

In my eyes the French people redeemed themselves by their actions. n France 75% of the Jews survived, and for me, this is the most important consideration when relating to the French people. For me the help the Jews received from the French people is more important then the misdeeds of Laval, Petain or Papon. Collective consciousness is very selective and like history very subjective. It is bad to remember only the evil and forget the good. Nevertheless, I am glad that the Papon trial will bring the Holocaust closer to the collective consciousness of the French people.

kimel@systec.com