Paul Teitgen (6 February 1919 – 13 October 1991) was arésistant and political prisoner during theSecond World War. Later, he was thePolice Prefect ofAlgiers during theAlgerian War, where he was notable for his opposition to theFrench military's use oftorture.[1][2][3]
Teitgen was born inColombe-lès-Vesoul, son of Henri (an employee ofL'Impartial before the war, after he became a lawyer), brother toPierre Henri Teitgen and one of seven, growing up inNancy.
During the war Teitgen, his father and brother all joined theFrench Resistance and were deported by theNazis.[4][5] He was imprisoned inDachau Concentration Camp and tortured nine times.[6]: 203
After the war he joined the first class of theÉcole nationale d'administration. After graduation he became sub-Prefect and then in 1955 secretary general of theMarne.[7]
In August 1956, Teitgen was appointed Police Perfect ofAlgiers.[8] In November 1956 he refused to condone the torture ofFernand Iveton who had planted a bomb at the gasworks where he worked and refused to reveal the location of a second bomb.[6]: 204 [9]: 108
In December 1956 Teitgen received a call from GeneralJacques Faure proposing a military takeover of Algeria. Teitgen reported the exchange to the Governor-General of AlgeriaRobert Lacoste and then to Minister of DefenceMaurice Bourgès-Maunoury who was dismissive of the warning. Teitgen then reported it to Prime MinisterGuy Mollet and Faure was recalled to France and arrested.[6]: 180–1 GeneralPaul Aussaresses later stated that Teitgen's actions against Faure were widely resented by the military.[9]: 84
Teitgen was reported to be ambivalent towards the military, commanded by GeneralJacques Massu, being given full police powers over Algiers during theBattle of Algiers as he regarded the Algiers Police as being corrupt and under the control of theCorsican Mafia.[10]: 139
On 29 March 1957, Teitgen handed his resignation to Lacoste after seeing signs of torture on prisoners being held at the military holding camps atBéni Messous and Paul Cazelle. Lacoste asked Teitgen to remain at his post in order to try to mitigate the torture and Teitgen agreed and in April he helped form the "Safeguard Committee of Individual Rights and Liberties" to investigate and moderate the torture. He eventually resigned over the torture issue in September, leaving his post on 8 October 1957.[6]: 204 Teitgen recorded that he had approved over 24,000assignations a residence which gave the military custody of suspects and of those 3,024 had disappeared.[10]: 236 Paul Aussaresses asserts that Teitgen would have known that many of those detained would be tortured but possibly was unaware that many would also be executed.[9]: 124
His resignation, (as well as that ofGeneral de Bollardière, the only senior Army officer to do so) is notable for being one of the very few instances of senior French officers opposing torture during the war.
In early May 1958 he travelled to Paris to warn of the impendingmilitary putsch in Algiers. On his return to Algiers he was threatened and forced to leave Algeria on 19 May.[11] Teitgen and his family were then sent to Brazil staying there for six months before returning to France. In 1960 he became a member of theConseil d'État.[4]
In September 1960 Teitgen appeared as a witness in the trial ofFrancis Jeanson. In his deposition Teitgen said that during the Battle of Algiers he had sheltered three Muslim nurses in his home for a month and a half protecting them from both the FLN and the French military. Teitgen advised that torture was the reason for his resignation and that he been aware of some disappearances.[10]: 236–8
Teitgen later remarked "All right, Massu won the Battle of Algiers; but that meant losing the war."[6]: 207
He died on 13 October 1991 and was buried in his home town of Colombe-lès-Vesoul.
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