PARIS , France ( CNN ) -- France bears responsibility for deporting Jews to their deaths in concentration camps during World War II , the country 's highest court ruled Monday . Jews and foreigners are rounded up in Paris in May 1941 . But , the Council of State said , `` measures taken since the end of the Second World War have compensated for the damage . '' Northern France was directly occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II while the south of the country was ruled by the Vichy government that collaborated with Adolf Hitler . France 's role in the deportation of its Jews was a taboo subject for decades after the war . 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 . There were approximately 350,000 Jews in France at the time of the country 's defeat by Germany in 1940 . At least half of those were refugees who had already fled Germany or countries already under Nazi occupation , according to the Web site of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum . At least 77,000 Jews were deported to their deaths from French transit camps between 1942 and the end of German occupation in December 1944 . Of these , around a third were French citizens and more than 8,000 were children under 13 .
Court : France bears responsibility for sending Jews to WWII concentration camps . Court rules measures taken since end of war have compensated for damage . Paris 's role in deportation of its Nazi taboo for the end of the after war . approximately 350,000 Jews deported from France during Nazi occupation .