Paxton, an expert in Vichy history, dismissed the "preconceived ideas" according to which Vichy had "hoped to protect French Jews" by handing "foreign Jews" over to the Germans: "From the start, at the summit, it was known that their departure the French Jews was unavoidable... Italians had protected the Jews. And the French authorities complained about it to the Germans... The French state, itself, has participated in the politics of extermination of the Jews." In his 36-minute final speech to the jury, Papon rarely evoked those killed during the Holocaust. He portrayed himself as a victim of "the saddest chapter in French legal history." He denounced a "Moscow Trial" and compared his status to that of the Jew Alfred Dreyfus in the 19th century.