Fit to be tried: Maurice Papon and the Vichy Syndrome. Defeat and collaboration

Papon was a high-ranking Vichy official. He was involved in deporting 1,560 Jews during 1942-1944 most of whom were murdered in Auschwitz. He was arrested and sentenced to 10 years, but freed during the appeal process. At stake is France's ability to honestly address its complicity in the Holocaust. The Papon trial will also serve to create and record documentation regarding France's antisemitic legislation which facilitated the murder of 77,000 Jews