The trial is resuming in Bordeaux of Maurice Papon, the former senior French official accused of crimes against humanity for his role in the deportation of Jews during the German occupation of France in the early 1940. The trial was interrupted for two weeks over the Christmas and New Year holidays, after doctors certified that Papon, now eighty-seven, was unwell. From Paris Stephen Jessel:

The trial of Maurice Papon, who held senior office in the Bordeaux region of south-west France during the German occupation, began almost three months ago. It was due to of ended on December the twenty-third, but the hearings have repeatedly been interrupted by Papon's illness and the hearing of the evidence has taken much longer than expected.

A verdict is not now expected until the end of February at the earliest; there are even suggestions the trial may last until April. The hearings at the end of last year were damaging to Papon, who's argued that he was not involved in the deportation and subsequent gassing of more than fifteen hundred Jews, including many children.

He says he intervened to save many Jews and that he knew nothing of the fate that awaited those who were deported, first to a holding camp near Paris, then to death camps in Germany and Poland. But witnesses have contradicted the claims.

Papon said he'd saved a small girl from the Germans, but at that point the Germans were not seeking to deport children. And he spoke from the dock of the annihilation he knew to be awaiting those who were deported.