A marshal whose Verdun prestige ended in Vichy collaboration
On 17 June 1940, Pétain broadcast that France must cease fighting.
Philippe Pétain was a French general who became a national hero through his command at Verdun and his effort to restore the army’s morale after the 1917 mutinies. In 1940 he opposed continuing the war against Germany and sought an armistice; after parliament granted him constituent powers, he became head of the French State at Vichy and replaced the republic with an authoritarian regime. His government collaborated with Nazi Germany and enacted antisemitic laws, binding French state institutions to the occupation order. After liberation, the High Court condemned him to death for treason and intelligence with the enemy, but Charles de Gaulle commuted the sentence to life imprisonment.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1876Entered Saint-Cyr military academy
- 1916Commanded French forces at Verdun
- 1917–1918Commander-in-chief of the French Army
- 1934Minister of War
- 1939–1940French ambassador to Spain
- 1940.06President of the Council of Ministers of France
- 1940–1944Head of the French State at Vichy
- 1945–1951Convicted of treason and imprisoned for life
Related historical events
Establishing Vichy and the collaboration of French state institutions
After France’s defeat in the German invasion of June 1940, Pétain’s government sought and concluded an armistice with Germany. On 10 July, the French National Assembly granted Pétain full powers, including constituent powers; 80 parliamentarians opposed the measure. The constitutional order of the Third Republic was suspended and Vichy’s authoritarian regime took shape. Pétain drafted a constitution that was never promulgated. The parliamentary vote is important context for the regime’s creation, but it does not detach the regime that followed from Pétain’s responsibility.
Vichy measures nominally applied throughout France, but until November 1942 the government could rule autonomously only in the southern zone outside German occupation. While officially neutral, the regime collaborated closely with Germany. The Jewish Statutes of October 1940 and June 1941 excluded Jews from public and military service and restricted their access to many occupations. In 1941 the regime established the General Commissariat for Jewish Affairs to coordinate anti-Jewish policy, and pursued “Aryanization,” transferring Jewish property to French state ownership. In 1942 French police, with Vichy’s agreement, arrested Jews in both occupied and unoccupied zones; in Paris on 16–17 July they arrested about 13,000 people. These policies and actions show both the Vichy government’s own responsibility and the ways French state institutions participated in Nazi Germany’s persecution.