Judging the Past: Lessons from The Papon Trial

Abstract

We know that our relationship to the past does not remain stagnant. From calls to bring down confederate symbols throughout the American South, to those that demand the British Museum return artifacts, expropriated during a moment of imperial expansion and conquest, to their country of origin,  our attitudes change as to how we should remember the past and how the past is judged. Indeed, we see how the dark pasts of Western nations, rooted in slavery and imperialism, have become increasingly prevalent in assessing the injustices of today. The voices we listen to, and the memories we prioritize affect how justice might be applied. How should we publicly, or nationally, remember these pasts? In the face of complex or shameful pasts, how do we untangle them, clarify them, and condemn them?  And when public attitudes towards the past change, how do we redress these crimes?

This paper turns to France which underwent its own process of rehabilitation, reflection, and repression after WWII. This process, I argue, is an example of the difficulties of pursuing justice, which holds important lessons for the ongoing questions facing us today. I show this by looking closely at the controversial and lengthy 1980s trial of French bureaucrat Maurice Papon, who was put in the dock for his contribution in the deportation of over 1600 Jews from the Southern French city of Bordeaux. Ultimately, this paper takes a deeper look into the lesser-known lessons of this search for justice and due process at the end of the war.