VICHY’S PÉTAIN FACES TREASON CHARGES

Paris, France · July 23, 1945

Following the military defeat of France by Nazi Ger­many in June 1940, World War I hero Marshal Philippe Pétain pro­claimed a new French govern­ment on July 10, 1940. Pétain held the title of “Presi­dent of the Coun­cil” instead of Pre­si­dent of France. His govern­ment, which accorded him extraor­di­nary powers, was offi­cially called the French State, L’État Français. Unoffi­cially, it was called Vichy France after the resort where Pétain and the National Assem­bly met. Paris, the French capi­tal, remained in Ger­man-occupied North­ern France. Vichy admin­is­tered the “Free Zone,” as the south­ern rump of France was called, but it had legal authority in both zones. (See map below.)

When the Allies landed in Vichy-administered North Africa in Novem­ber 1942 (Operation Torch), Ger­man and Ital­ian troops moved in to occupy the south of France. On August 24, 1944, after four years of Vichy col­lab­o­ration and Ger­man occu­pa­tion, a Free French armored divi­sion under the com­mand of Gen. Jacques Philippe Leclerc, which had landed on Utah Beach in Normandy at the top of that month, liberated the French capi­tal. The next day Free French head Gen. Charles de Gaulle, who had set up a pro­vi­sional govern­ment (Gouverne­ment provisoire de la République française) on French soil during the Nor­mandy Cam­paign, entered Paris and within a week had installed his government in the liberated capital.

Pushing his myth of France as a nation of united resis­ters be­trayed by a hand­ful of traitors (the truth was, most French, espe­cially those in mili­tary and govern­ment ser­vice, supported the Pétain regime), de Gaulle pressed a pro­gram of national recon­cili­a­tion on his country­men. That said, over 300,000 sus­pected French col­lab­o­rators—in­cluding some of the more than 40,000 men who had joined the Vichy French para­mili­tary Milice, scourge of the French Resis­tance—were turned over to various courts of justice. Of those, 764 were executed.

On this date in 1945 Vichy head Pétain was placed on trial and three weeks later was sen­tenced to death. De Gaulle com­muted the 89‑year-old’s sen­tence to life im­pri­son­ment. Pierre Laval, Prime Minis­ter of Vichy France, and Milice chief Joseph Dar­nand were exe­cuted. Many collab­o­ra­tors—for in­stance police who had orga­nized raids to cap­ture Jews and others con­sidered “unde­sir­ables” by the Ger­mans in both French zones—soon resumed offi­cial duties. In 1955 am­nesty fever broke out and ten years later all jailed French collaborators were free persons.



Partitioned France and Prominent Vichy French Collaborators

France’s wartime zones, 1940–1944

Above: In just six weeks in May and June 1940, France, a world power, descended into a sub­ject nation, par­ti­tioned between German and Italian occupiers and Vichy French collab­o­rators. The German-occupied zone included the northern three-fifths of France and a strip of land running down the whole Atlantic coast­line from Belgium to Spain. The German zone con­tained most of France’s popu­la­tion, indus­trial wealth, and best vita­cultural (wine-growing) areas. The unoccu­pied zone (Free Zone) in South-Central and South­eastern metro­pol­itan France was the poorest part of the country and was the head­quarters of Marshal Pétain’s Vichy govern­ment. After Allied landings in French North­west Africa in November 1942, German and Italian troops swept in to occupy Vichy France (renamed the Southern Zone) until killed, captured, or expelled from most parts of France between June and August 1944.

Philippe Pétain, 1856–1951Pierre Laval, 1883–1945

Left: Philippe Pétain (1856–1951) was a French gene­ral who reached the dis­tinc­tion of Marshal of France, later autho­ri­tarian Chief of State of Vichy France from 1940 to 1944. Over the years Pétain and his Vichy regime col­labo­rated ever more closely with their Ger­man occupiers. His war­time actions resulted in his post­war con­vic­tion for trea­son (by a one-vote majority) and death sen­tence. Gen. Charles de Gaulle, who was Presi­dent of the Pro­visional Govern­ment of the French Repub­lic, com­muted the sen­tence to life im­pri­son­ment due to Pétain’s advance age and his mili­tary con­tri­bu­tions in World War I. Pétain was exiled to an is­land pri­son off the French Atlantic coast, where he died at the age of 95.

Right: Pierre Laval (1883–1945) was four-time Prime Minis­ter of France, twice ser­ving the Vichy regime as head of govern­ment. An admirer of totali­tarian govern­ment, Laval em­braced the cause of fas­cism, the de­struc­tion of demo­cracy, and the dis­mantling of the demo­cra­tic Third Repub­lic. He signed orders sanc­tioning the depor­ta­tion of foreign Jews from French soil to Nazi death camps. On Septem­ber 7, 1944, what was left of the Vichy govern­ment moved to Sigmaringen in South­western Ger­many. After falling into U.S. hands, Laval was turned over to the French govern­ment in late July 1945. Tried for trea­son and vio­lating state secu­rity, he was con­victed and sen­tenced to death. After a failed attempt at sui­cide (the cya­nide had lost its full potency), Laval was executed, half-conscious and vomiting, by firing squad on October 15, 1945.

Joseph Darnand, 1897–1945Jacques Doriot, 1898–1945

Left: A far-right veteran from the First World War, Joseph Dar­nand (1897–1945) founded a mili­tia in 1941 that sup­ported Philippe Pétain and Vichy France. In Janu­ary 1943 he trans­formed the organ­iza­tion into the noto­rious Milice Fran­çaise (Milice). In Octo­ber 1943 Dar­nand took an oath of loyal­ty to Adolf Hitler and re­ceived the rank of Sturm­bann­fuehrer (major) in the Waffen-SS (ruth­less armed wing of the Nazi Party’s Schutz­staffel, or SS for short). In Decem­ber 1943 he became head of police and later secre­tary of the in­terior. Dar­nand expanded the Milice and by 1944 it had over 35,000 mem­bers. After the Nor­mandy in­va­sion and Allied adv­ance, Dar­nand joined Pétain’s government-in-exile in South­western Ger­many in Septem­ber 1944. The next April he fled to North­ern Italy, where he was arrested and hauled back to France. Tried and sen­tenced to death, Darnand was executed by firing squad on October 10, 1945.

Right: Jacques Doriot (1898–1945) founded the ultra­nationalist, pro-fascist Parti Popu­laire Fran­çais (PPF) in 1936. Doriot became a staunch sup­porter of the Nazi occu­pa­tion of North­ern France in 1940. He moved to Paris, where he espoused pro-Ger­man and anti-Com­mu­nist pro­pa­ganda on Radio Paris. In 1941 he co-founded the Légion des Volon­taires Fran­çais (LVF), a French unit of the Ger­man Wehr­macht (armed forces). The LVF saw active duty on the East­ern Front. When the unit was all but de­stroyed, Doriot fought in the Wehr­macht and was awarded the Iron Cross in 1943. After France’s libe­ra­tion the PPF was in­volved in con­ducting intel­li­gence and sabo­tage acti­vi­ties by supplying men whom the Ger­mans dropped by para­chute into libe­rated France. Doriot was killed in late February 1945 when his car was strafed by Allied fighter aircraft.

Treason Trials of Marshal Philippe Pétain and Pierre Laval (in German; Interesting for the Lineup of Prosecution Witnesses)