The trial of Paul Touvier, a Vichy official convicted of killing seven Jews, was “necessary,” according to an opinion poll conducted here last week.
Touvier, 79, was sentenced last month by the Versailles Court of Justice to serve a life sentence for crimes against humanity.
As chief of the intelligence service of the French collaborationist militia in Lyon during World War II, he ordered the execution of seven Jewish hostages in Rillieux-la-Pape, located near Lyon in southeastern France, on June 29, 1944.
The executions were ordered in retaliation for the assassination by the French Resistance of Philippe Henriot, the Vichy propaganda minister.
According to last week’s poll, 61 percent of French citizens interviewed favored the trial, while 32 percent opposed it.
There was less support for the trial among self-described observant Catholics, 40 percent of whom opposed the trial, with many of them saying it would “awaken old passions.” Among this group, 52 percent favored holding the trial.
Touvier had spent many years in hiding after he was charged with crimes against humanity. It was discovered later that he was helped by numerous members of the Catholic church in France, some of them belonging to the highest ranks of the Catholic hierarchy.
Among those polled who described themselves as having leftist leanings, 69 percent felt that the Touvier trial should have taken place. Among self-described rightist sympathizers, 59 percent approved holding the trial.
Touvier was the first French citizen to be tried for crimes against humanity.
The only other Frenchman still indicted on that charge is Maurice Papon, 84, who ordered the deportation of 1,690 Jews from the Bordeaux area at a time when the region was not under Nazi occupation.
Many observers here doubt Papon will ever be brought to trial because of the high positions he held in France both during the war and after.
Papon was Paris police chief during the 1960s and was a Cabinet member in the 1970s.
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