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Title
France on Trial : The Case of Marshal Pétain / / Julian Jackson.
ISBN
9780674294578
Published
Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, [2023]
Copyright
©2023
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource (416 p.)
Item Number
10.4159/9780674294578 doi
Call Number
DC342.8.P4 J34 2023
Dewey Decimal Classification
944.081/6
Summary
For three weeks in July 1945 all eyes were fixed on a humid Paris, where France's disgraced former head of state was on trial, accused of masterminding a plot to overthrow democracy. Would Philippe Pétain, hero of Verdun, be condemned as the traitor of Vichy?In the terrible month of October 1940, few things were more shocking than the sight of Marshal Philippe Pétain-supremely decorated hero of the First World War, now head of the French government-shaking hands with Hitler. Pausing to look at the cameras, Pétain announced that France would henceforth collaborate with Germany. "This is my policy," he intoned. "My ministers are responsible to me. It is I alone who will be judged by History."Five years later, in July 1945, after a wave of violent reprisals following the liberation of Paris, Pétain was put on trial for his conduct during the war. He stood accused of treason, charged with heading a conspiracy to destroy France's democratic government and collaborating with Nazi Germany. The defense claimed he had sacrificed his personal honor to save France and insisted he had shielded the French people from the full scope of Nazi repression. Former resisters called for the death penalty, but many identified with this conservative military hero who had promised peace with dignity.The award-winning author of a landmark biography of Charles de Gaulle, Julian Jackson uses Pétain's three-week trial as a lens through which to examine one of history's great moral dilemmas. Was the policy of collaboration "four years to erase from our history," as the prosecution claimed? Or was it, as conservative politicians insist to this day, a sacrifice that placed pragmatism above moral purity? As head of the Vichy regime, Pétain became the lightning rod for collective guilt and retribution. But he has also been an icon of the nationalist right ever since. In France on Trial, Jackson blends courtroom drama, political intrigue, and brilliant narrative history to highlight the hard choices and moral compromises leaders make in times of war.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 18. Sep 2023)
Frontmatter
Contents
List of Illustrations
Map: Pétain's last journeys
Acknowledgements
Dramatis Personae
Introduction: The Fateful Handshake
Part One Before the Trial
1 The Last Days of Vichy
2 A Castle in Germany
3 Paris after Liberation
4 Pétain's Return
5 Preparing the Trial
6 Interrogating the Prisoner
Part Two In the Courtroom
7 France Waits
8 First Day in Court
9 Republican Ghosts
10 Debating the Armistice
11 The Defence Fights Back
12 Last Witnesses for the Prosecution
13 'You Will Not Make Me Say That the Marshal is a Traitor'
14 The Pierre Laval Show
15 Generals and Bureaucrats
16 The Absent Jews
17 The Count, the Assassin and the Blind General
18 Réquisitoire and Plaidoiries
19 The Verdict
Part Three Afterlives
20 The Prisoner
21 Vichy Emerges from the Catacombs
22 Keepers of the Flame
23 Memory Wars
24 Remembering the Jews
25 Judging Pétain Today
Epilogue: On the Pétain Trail
Notes
Sources
Index
