Editing Paul Touvier

{{Villain Infobox
|Image = Touvier.jpg
|fullname = Paul Touvier
|alias = Paul Berthet<br>Paul LaCroix<br>The Hangman of Lyon
|origin = Alpes-de-Haute, France
|occupation = Head of the Chambéry Milice intelligence department<br>Head of the Chambéry Milice
|skills = Military discipline
|hobby = Womanizing
|goals = Enforce Nazi rule in France<br>Escape prosecution (failed)
|crimes = [[Genocide]]<br>[[Crimes against humanity]]<br>[[War crimes]]<br>Treason<br>Black marketeering<br>Desertion
|type of villain = Traitorous War Criminal}}
'''Paul Touvier''' (3 April 1915 - 17 July 1996) was a French [[Nazi Party|Nazi]] collaborator and the first French citizen to be convicted of [[crimes against humanity]] for his role in implementing [[The Holocaust]] in [[Vichy France]]. 

==Biography==
Touvier was born in Alpes-de-Haute on 3 April 1915 to a devoutly Catholic family. He intended to become a priest when he was young and served as an altar boy. At the outbreak of [[World War II]], Touvier was conscripted and sent to the front lines to fight the German Wehrmacht, but soon deserted and returned back home. He and his family were strong supporters of the Vichy government formed by the Nazis in France, particularly President [[Philippe Pétain]].

When the [[Milice]], a collaborationist police force, was formed in 1943, Touvier's father persuaded him to sign up in the hope that it would instill military discipline into his son, who had a reputation as a womanizer and black marketeer. He was appointed head of the Milice intelligence department in the Chambéry region under [[Klaus Barbie]], and ultimately became regional head of the Milice. In this position it was Touvier's job to hunt down Jews, who were arrested and deported to [[concentration camps]], and Resistance members. Touvier also oversaw reprisals in the Lyon area; after Vichy Propaganda Minister [[Philippe Henriot]] was murdered by the French Resistance, he retaliated by ordering the execution of seven Jews who were already in custody. 

When France fell to the Allies, Touvier went into hiding. He attempted to conceal his location by putting an ad in the newspaper announcing his death, but French authorities concluded he was still alive and he was sentenced to death ''in absentia'' for treason. However, he successfully hid out under the alias "Paul Berthet" until the 20-year statute of limitations expired and he was able to return to public life in 1966. After a lengthy campaign, Touvier was even able to obtain a pardon from President Georges Pompidou in 1971 and obtain property confiscated by the police.

After much public outcry, in 1973 French Jew Georges Glaeser brought a private prosecution against Touvier for crimes against humanity, a crime with no statute of limitations. Touvier fled rather than face trial with help from a Catholic fundamentalist group known as "The Knights of Notre Dame", which sheltered him in a monastery under the alias "Paul LaCroix". He remained at large until 1988, when investigator Jean-Louis Recordon was placed in charge of the hunt for Touvier. Recordon suspected the Knights of Notre Dame as they were on Touvier's mailing list and was eventually able to obtain an admission from a member of the group that Touvier was being sheltered at a monastery in Nice. Touvier was arrested on 24 May 1984.

Touvier was convicted of five counts of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in prison from prostate cancer on 17 July 1996.
[[Category:List]]
[[Category:Male]]
[[Category:Modern Villains]]
[[Category:Deceased]]
[[Category:Deaths in prison]]
[[Category:European Villains]]
[[Category:France]]
[[Category:Imprisoned]]
[[Category:War Criminal]]
[[Category:Villains of World War 2]]
[[Category:Genocidal]]
[[Category:Mass Murderers]]
[[Category:Traitor]]
[[Category:Anti-Semetic]]
[[Category:Cowards]]
[[Category:Egotist]]
[[Category:Xenophobes]]