Paul Teitgen

Paul Teitgen, born on February 6, 1919 in Colombe-lès-Vesoul and died on October 13, 1991 in Saint-Cloud, a member of the Resistance since 1940 and deported first to the Struthof camp in Alsace then to Dachau, during the Second World War, was Secretary General of the Algiers Prefecture, in charge of general policing during the Algerian War, between August 1956 and September 1957. He is known for having opposed the use of torture during the Battle of Algiers.

Paul Teitgen, grew up in Nancy in a family of Christian Democrats. His father Henri Teitgen and his brother Pierre-Henri Teitgen, minister of the Fourth Republic, joined the Resistance like him. A member of the Resistance since 1940, Paul Teitgen organized the National Liberation Committee in Lorraine from January 1943, in which he was responsible for appointing prefects and the Commissioner of the Republic. He was arrested in Lunéville on July 6, 1944, then transferred to Nancy prison, where he was tortured by the Gestapo. He was then deported to the Struthof camp on August 19, 1944, then transferred to the Dachau camp in September of the same year. At Dachau, he became close to Gaston Gosselin, Joseph Rovan, and Father Sommet, loyal to Edmond Michelet.

After his release from the Dachau camp on April 29, 1945, he was repatriated on a plane of journalists on May 31. Concerned about the duty of remembrance, he became a member of the Commission for the History of Internment and Deportation. He successfully passed the first competitive examination of the National School of Administration and became a student in the "France Combattante" promotion. When he left school, he chose to serve in the prefectural corps.