France 'responsible' for Holocaust deaths

France bears responsibility for deporting Jews to their deaths in concentration camps during World War II, the country's highest court ruled Monday.

But, the Council of State said, "measures taken since the end of the Second World War have compensated for the damage."

The trial of Maurice Papon, a civil servant in the collaborationist Vichy government, for deporting Jews, forced the country to confront its role in the Holocaust.

Papon was convicted in 1998 by a French court for complicity in crimes against humanity for his role in the deportation of 1,590 Jews from the city of Bordeaux.

Most of the deportees later perished at the concentration camp at Auschwitz in modern day Poland. Papon died in February 2007, aged 96, after serving part of his term and then being freed on health grounds.

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