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Paul Touvier | |
|---|---|
| Born | Paul Claude Marie Touvier (1915-04-03)3 April 1915 |
| Died | 17 July 1996(1996-07-17) (aged 81) |
| Nationality | French |
| Other names | Paul Berthet |
| Conviction | Crimes against humanity |
| Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment (1994) |
| Career | |
| Allegiance |  Vichy France
|
| Service | Milice |
| Years of service | 1943–1945 |
| Spouse(s) | Monique Berthet (m. 1947-1996; his death) |
| Children | 2 |
Paul Claude Marie Touvier (3 April 1915 – 17 July 1996) was aFrenchNazi collaborator and war criminal duringWorld War II inOccupied France. In 1994, he became the first Frenchman ever convicted ofcrimes against humanity,[1] for his participation in theHolocaust underVichy France.
Paul Claude Marie Touvier was born on 3 April 1915 inSaint-Vincent-sur-Jabron,Alpes de Haute-Provence, in southeastern France. His family was devoutlyRoman Catholic, lower-middle-class and extremelyconservative.[2][3] He was one of 11 children,[3] and the oldest of the five boys. He served as analtar boy when he was young, and attended a seminary for a year, intending to become a priest.[2]
Touvier's mother, Eugenie, was an orphan who was raised by nuns. As an adult, she was very religious and went toMass every day.[2] She died when Touvier was a teenager.[3] His father, François Touvier, was a tax collector inChambéry, after having retired after serving as a career soldier for 19 years. Touvier's father was very conservative, an admirer of themonarchist andanti-parliamentaristCharles Maurras andL'Action Française.[2]
Paul Touvier graduated from the InstituteSaint Francis de Sales in Chambéry at the age of 16. When he turned 21, his father got him a job as a clerk at the local railroad station, where he was working when World War II began.[3] Touvier was mobilized for the war effort in 1939. After theVichy government was created, Touvier and his family were firm supporters of its leaderPhilippe Pétain. Father and son joined the Vichy veterans' group when it was founded in 1941.[2]
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Joining the French8th Infantry Division, Touvier fought against the GermanWehrmacht until, following the bombing ofChateau-Thierry, hedeserted. Touvier returned to Chambéry in 1940, which was then occupied by theKingdom of Italy. His life took a new course after theMilice (the Vichy French militia) was established.
Touvier had become known for womanizing and for trading in theblack market. Disgusted by his son's libertine lifestyle, his devoutly Catholic father persuaded him to join the Milice, hoping that a little military discipline would "make a man out of his son."
Touvier was eventually appointed head of the intelligence department in the Chambéry Milice under the direction of theGestapo andSD, serving as a subordinate. In January 1944 he became its second regional head.
In Paris on 28 June 1944, 15 members of theRésistance, dressed as members of the Milice,assassinated Vichy France Minister for PropagandaPhilippe Henriot as he slept in the Ministry building where he lived and worked. As it was suspected that the assassins were from Lyon, Touvier was ordered to conduct reprisal killings. On 30 June, Touvier found seven French Jewish prisoners already in custody, and had themexecuted byfiring squad.
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After the liberation of France by theAllied forces, Touvier went into hiding; he escaped thesummary execution suffered by many suspected collaborators during theépuration sauvage. On 10 September 1946, the governmentsentenced him to deathin absentia fortreason and collusion with theNazis. In 1947, he was arrested forarmed robbery inParis, but escaped.
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By 1966, implementation of his death sentence was barred based on a 20-yearstatute of limitations. Attorneys for Touvier filed an application for a pardon. They requested that the lifetime ban on leaving the country and the confiscation of goods linked tocapital punishment be lifted. In 1971, French PresidentGeorges Pompidou granted Touvier the pardon.
Pompidou's pardon caused a public outcry. This increased when it was revealed that most of the property which Touvier claimed as his own had allegedly been seized from deported Jews.
On 3 July 1973,Georges Glaeser filed a complaint against Touvier, charging him with crimes against humanity, which had no statute of limitations. Glaeser accused Touvier of ordering the execution of seven Jewish hostages atRillieux-la-Pape nearLyon, on 29 June 1944 in retaliation for the murder ofPhilippe Henriot, the Vichy Government's Secretary of State for Information and Propaganda, which had occurred the previous evening. After being indicted, Touvier disappeared again. Years of legal maneuvering ensued through his lawyers until awarrant was issued for his arrest on 27 November 1981.
On 24 May 1989, Touvier was arrested at theSociety of Saint Pius X (SSPX)priory inNice. The SSPX said at the time that Touvier had been allowed to live in the priory as "an act of charity to ahomeless man".[4]
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On 17 July 1996, Paul Touvier died ofprostate cancer at the age of 81 inFresnes Prison, near Paris. ATridentineRequiem Mass was offered for the repose of hissoul by FatherPhilippe Laguérie atSt Nicolas du Chardonnet, theSociety of St. Pius X chapel, in Paris. He was survived by his widow, Monique (died 2018), and their two children, Chantal and Pierre.
TheIrish-CanadiannovelistBrian Moore's 1995 novel,The Statement, is loosely based on Touvier's life. It was adapted as a film, also titledThe Statement (2003), directed byNorman Jewison.Michael Caine appeared as Pierre Brossard, a character inspired by Touvier.
An episode of theHistory Television seriesNazi Hunters, first broadcast on 1 November 2010,[5] documented the 1989 efforts of French authorities to find and arrest Touvier.
For several years, the Belgian singerJacques Brel worked with Touvier.[6] Touvier met Brel by reportedly approaching him in a restaurant and saying, "I am Paul Touvier, a condemned man."[7] Brel's wife, however, said that they knew him only as "Paul Berthet", an alias which he sometimes used, based on his wife'smaiden name.[7]
