18 Facts About Paul Touvier

Paul Claude Marie Touvier was a French Nazi collaborator and war criminal during World War II in Occupied France.

Paul Claude Marie Touvier was born on 3 April 1915 in Saint-Vincent-sur-Jabron, Alpes de Haute-Provence, in southeastern France.

Paul Touvier's family was devoutly Roman Catholic, lower-middle-class and extremely conservative.

Paul Touvier was one of 11 children, and the oldest of the five boys.

Paul Touvier served as an altar boy when he was young, and attended a seminary for a year, intending to become a priest.

Paul Touvier's father, Francois Touvier, was a tax collector in Chambery, after having retired after serving as a career soldier for 19 years.

Paul Touvier's father was very conservative, an admirer of the monarchist and anti-parliamentarist Charles Maurras and L'Action Francaise.

Paul Touvier graduated from the Institute Saint Francis de Sales in Chambery at the age of 16.

Paul Touvier returned to Chambery in 1940, which was then occupied by the Kingdom of Italy.

Paul Touvier's life took a new course after the Milice was established.

Paul Touvier had become known for womanizing and for trading in the black market.

Paul Touvier was eventually appointed head of the intelligence department in the Chambery Milice under the direction of the Gestapo and SD, serving as a subordinate.

On 3 July 1973, Georges Glaeser filed a complaint against Paul Touvier, charging him with crimes against humanity, which had no statute of limitations.

Glaeser accused Paul Touvier of ordering the execution of seven Jewish hostages at Rillieux-la-Pape near Lyon, on 29 June 1944 in retaliation for the murder of Philippe Henriot, the Vichy Government's Secretary of State for Information and Propaganda, which had occurred the previous evening.

On 24 May 1989, Paul Touvier was arrested at the Society of Saint Pius X priory in Nice.

The SSPX said at the time that Paul Touvier had been allowed to live in the priory as "an act of charity to a homeless man".

On 17 July 1996, Paul Touvier died of prostate cancer at the age of 81 in Fresnes Prison, near Paris.

Paul Touvier was survived by his widow, Monique, and their two children, Chantal and Pierre.