Show 2000 Stood Trial In Int French Purge Death Sentences s Passed By Courts in 9 9 Months ill PARIS More PARIS More than people have stood trial in the nine month I purge of French collaborationists but more remain to face judgment ministry of justice figures I reveal The courts have passed death verdicts sentences of hard labor I for life other hard labor sen sen- sentences sentences sentences 1063 of imprisonment for five years or more and for shorter jail terms There were ac ac- ac- ac quitted Slow handling of the long lists of Frenchmen charged with aiding the 1 Germans drew sharp fire from speakers at the recent convention of resistance groups If the courts move slowly authorities authorities authorities ties said it is because only a thin line frequently divided collaboration collaboration collaboration tion from simply living and working work work- working working I ing under German Gennan occupation a aline aline aline I line not always easy to find i The cases that drew death ver ver- verdicts verdicts verdicts or life sentences seldom pre pre- presented presented difficulties for judges and juries like the supreme penalty for treason imposed on Paul the French Lord Haw Haw or 1 last April on Gen Henri Dentz who fought the British British- occupation of I Syria I These were mostly supreme court i I i I is in the I 1 I trials of high crimes It lower courts where the queer and often terrible effects of the German I I occupation on seemingly ordinary men and women have come to light I I I Sometimes it was pure sadism There was the beautiful and wellborn well wellborn wellborn I born girl who at 19 was one of the French gestapo's most expert tor tor- There was the boy who in informed in- in informed informed formed on women because the Ger Ger- Germans Germans Germans mans then let him watch them being stripped and mistreated in efforts I Ito to make them talk Sometimes it was anti I A woman who denounced a French Jewess J ewess has been executed Often the courts feel lowly de de- defendants defendants de- de defendants are more to be pitied than censured Acquitted was a char char- charwoman charwoman charwoman woman who had told on her fellow workers listening to the BBC She proved they had teamed up to give her the hardest cleaning jobs 1 |