Editing Maurice Papon (section)

===October 1961 massacre===

Papon oversaw the repression during the [[Paris massacre of 1961]]: on 17 October 1961, a large peaceful march, organised by the Algerian [[National Liberation Front (Algeria)|National Liberation Front]], broke a curfew that had been "advised" by Papon because of ostensible "concerns" on the group's sponsoring of a series of bombings throughout France. The police arrested 11,000 persons, who claimed that it was simply because of their appearance.<ref name="Bataille">{{in lang|fr}} Jean-Luc Einaudi: "La bataille de Paris: 17 octobre 1961", 1991; {{ISBN|2-02-013547-7}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Fenby|first=Jonathan|title=The History of Modern France: From the Revolution to the War on Terror|publisher=Simon & Schuster UK|year=2015|isbn=978-1-4711-2930-8|location=London|pages=374–376|language=English}}</ref>

They were mostly people from the [[Maghreb]] but also included [[Spanish people|Spanish]], [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] and [[Italian people|Italians]]. They were sent, in a tragic echo of the Vichy regime, on public buses to the [[Parc des Expositions]], the [[Vélodrome d'Hiver]] and other such centres that had been used under Vichy as [[concentration camps in France|internment centers]]. A massacre occurred in the courtyards of the Prefecture of Police, and the detainees were held without specific charges. In the following days at the Parc des Expositions, detainees were subject to inhumane treatments. Arrests continued throughout October 1961. Meanwhile, bodies were found floating in the [[Seine River]].<ref name=":0"/>{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}

Up to 200 people were killed during the events, according to a prominent historian, Jean-Luc Einaudi.<ref name="Bataille"/> Because some archives have been destroyed and others remain classified, the exact number of the dead remains unknown. At the time, the French government, headed by de Gaulle, with [[Roger Frey]] as Interior Minister, admitted only two of the dead. A government inquiry in 1999 concluded 48 drownings on the one night and 142 similar deaths of Algerians in the weeks before and after, 110 of whom were found in the Seine. It also concluded the true toll was almost certainly higher. According to ''Le Monde'', Papon "organized the silence." It was only in the 1990s that historians began to speak out.<ref name="Monde"/> The French government reluctantly recognized 48 deaths, but the Paris Archives, consulted by historian [[David Assouline]], note 70 persons dead. Papon never acknowledged responsibility for that massacre.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}