One of the darkest periods in French history was that of the occupation during the 1939/45 war in Europe. The country was split in two with the northern and western seabords occupied right down to the rivers Loire and Cher which meet at Tours. Paris was under the complete control of the occupying forces and the remainder of France was governed from Vichy. This period is referred to as les années noires, the dark years. It was during this time that the government of Vichy France came under the control of Marshal Pétain.
Henri Philippe Pétain, commonly known as Philippe, was born in April 1856 in Cauchy-à-la-Tour, Pas de Calais in northern France. One of five children he was the only son of a farmer and his wife. His mother died when he was only eighteen months old, and he was brought up by relatives when his father remarried. He studied at a local catholic boarding school near St Omer and was admitted to the St-Cyr Military Academy in 1873, where he began his extensive career in the army.
He distinguished himself at the academy and on active service, often employing tactics that ran against the then current army policy and philosophy. By 1916 he commanded the second army at Verdun, became Commander-in-Chief of the whole of the French army in 1917, Minister for War in 1934, Deputy Prime Minister in May 1940 and finally Prime Minister of France in June 1940 – a post which he held for twenty-five days until he was succeeded by Pierre Laval and given the post of Chief of the French State on July 11th, 1940. Following the liberation of France in 1944, Pétain and his Vichy government were relocated to Germany where they became a government in exile.
On July 23rd, 1945, Marshal Pétain was put on trial for treason. The proceedings lasted twenty-four days, and this period is the central focus of Jackson’s book.
Meticulously researched this tome examines the lead up to war, the work of the Vichy government and the subsequent trial alongside the political and human fallout as a result. Whilst there are tracts of speeches and arguments from the trial, the narrative flows well and with pace. Jackson goes on to examine the post trail period and it is interesting to note how attitudes changed, but it must be accepted that polls ‘need to be treated sceptically’ as the author admits.
I found this exposé of French history fascinating, the story playing out like a slow but insistently burning ember to a bitter end. The notes on the text and the index of sources - both published and unpublished - are extensive and provide opportunities for further personal reading or research.
The 'bitter end' for Pétain, a First World War hero and lifelong military man, was a jury conviction for his crimes against France. He was stripped of his military titles, his property confiscated and he was sentenced to death. At the time he was eighty-nine years old. Because of his age, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and he was incarcerated initially in the prison of Fort du Portalet in the Pyrénées and later Fort de Pierre-Levée on the Île de Ré, a small island off the coast of Charente-Maritime at La Rochelle.
In June 1951, because of ill health, Pétain’s sentence was commuted further to confinement in hospital, where he died on July 23rd, 1951 at the age of ninety-five. He is buried in the local cemetry on the Île de Ré, his headstone plain with the minimum of information. There is a tiny museum that must be the smallest in any country, and in my view, it’s more of a shrine than a historical display of a very different and difficult time in French history. The visitor’s book shows that even in death, Pétain still divides opinion as he did in life and during his trial.
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