France On Trial: The Case of Marshall Petain, Jackson - B

                      During his wartime speeches, de Gaulle referred to Petain as 'le Pere la Defaite' - Father of Defeat. A trial was promised, and it ran in Paris from July 23 to August 15, 1945.  Petain was tried for treason, described in the French penal Code as 'collusion with the enemy.'  A contemporary observer wrote - " Petain will remain a tragic figure, caught between treason and sacrifice...A trial like this one is never over and will never end."

                     Because of his heroic service in WWI, the 84 year old Marshal was "viewed as a savior" when he took over the Vichy regime in 1940. Over the course of the four years he was head of state, he was continually undermined by the Germans. Even after his position was emasculated, he opted to stay on. He was essentially under house arrest for the last months before the Germans took him east in August, 1944. In April of the following year, the government announced it would begin an in absentia trial of Petain. Two days later, he "presented himself at the Franco-Swiss border so that he could answer to the French people in person." During the interrogation phase prior to the trial, it became obvious to his lawyers that the 89 year old, although a remarkable physical specimen, was approaching senility. 

                      His trial was conducted by 3 judges before 24 jurors. Petain read a statement into the record defending his actions as being in the best interest of saving France for the future. He had very little to say thereafter. The case began with the events before and after June 12, 1940 when Petain, a member of theFrench  government, stated they should accept an armistice.  Were the Marshal's actions treasonous? After a week, it was evident that the prosecution had not proved that Petain had plotted a government takeover. He advocated for peace and accepted his new role.  The defense called Maxime Weygand, the general who was made the chief of staff just before the armistice. He castigated the government for placing him and Petain in untenable positions. The politicians had mismanaged the war,  put them on the spot, and were now accusing them of treason.  Pierre Laval, former premier, the number two throughout Vichy's course and generally considered the man behind the regime's excesses took the stand. Over two days, his essential message was that Petain approved of, and knew of, Laval's actions. Each side made lengthy closing arguments. The jurors voted for treason, but requested that the automatic death penalty not be carried out. DeGaulle immediately commuted the sentence to life imprisonment.

                      He was imprisoned in a two room cell on a tiny island 20 miles off the Brittany coast. By 1949, his memory was fleeting at best. He died in 1951 and was buried on the island. Throughout the country, a Petainist movement garnered support. When the 50th anniversary of Verdun approached, there was movement toward allowing the remains of 'The Hero of Verdun' to be laid to rest with his colleagues. DeGaulle declined to approve it. Decades later, in the 1990's, Jacques Chirac apologized for France's role in the deportation of its Jews, thus changing the post-war focus from the fighters to the victims. Nonetheless, the polls showed that 60% of the populace supported the armistice, and only 20% disapproved of Petain. Today, the schools from which Jewish children were deported have plaques saying they were "innocent victims of Nazi barbarism and the government of Vichy."  Vichy supporters respond that France's Jews survived at a higher percentage than any other occupied country. As it has been eight decades now, the issue is fading, but as mentioned in the first paragraph:  "this one is never over and will never end."