Forgotten Trials of the Holocaust. Michael J. Bazyler

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СКАЧАТЬ the Germans, the new French government had to locate elsewhere. It selected the spa town of Vichy, located centrally in France, but in the northern section of the unoccupied zone. The new government then became known as the Vichy government or regime.

      The criminal trial against Laval at the end of the war related to his conduct as a minister in the Vichy government. Laval was part of the Vichy government twice: first from June 1940 to December 1940, and then again from April 1942 until the war’s end. The following pages focus on Laval’s conduct during these two stages, which formed the core of the charges against him. Such conduct was, of course, but a small fraction of what Laval did over the almost three-year period covered by his position of power in the Vichy regime.

      Laval as Deputy Minister: June to December 1940

      As deputy prime minister, Laval had two primary objectives. The first was to create a governmental structure that differed from that of the just-defeated Third Republic. Convinced that the many changes in government and its leftist tinge had weakened the French state, Laval favored a more authoritarian and right-wing form of government. Second, his long-standing view that Germany and France had to reconcile was now made even more urgent by France’s military defeat at the hands of Nazi Germany. In Laval’s view, this latest round of European warfare would end in Germany winning the war, including the conquest of England. Moreover, as others mistakenly believed at the time, Laval felt that Hitler could be worked with and perhaps even managed.¹²

      The first objective of substituting a more authoritarian form of government for the existing Third Republic did not take long to implement. Pétain shared Laval’s notion that the democracy of the Third Republic weakened France and that a stronger, more authoritarian form of government was desirable. On July 10, 1940, Pétain and Laval prevailed upon the French National Assembly to vote itself out of existence, which it did by a vote of 569 to 80. This formally ended the Third Republic. Pétain now launched the Révolution nationale, an authoritarian regime aimed at restoring France.¹³

      In October, Laval was in Paris when informed by the German ambassador to Vichy France, Otto Abetz, with whom Laval had established a close relationship, that he would soon be meeting the German foreign minister, Joachim Ribbentrop. The meeting turned out to include Hitler as well, who said he would like to meet with Pétain. On October 24, 1940, Hitler, Ribbentrop, Pétain, and Laval met at Montoire, a Parisian suburb. “Montoire,” as it was to be known, was more significant for its symbolism than for any concrete results. The German leaders had hoped that France would declare war against England, but Pétain, who still had a semblance of authority, did not accede to the request. Pétain and Laval did agree that France would fight the British to retain control over French colonies.

      Shortly after the conference, Pétain made an infamous radio address to the French people in which he announced that he had experienced no pressure from Hitler but that “a collaboration was envisaged between our two countries.” Collaboration was undertaken, according to Pétain, to preserve French unity and French sovereignty.¹⁴

      Prior to Montoire, Laval had insisted that the French foreign minister, Paul Baudouin, not attend the meeting. This caused Baudouin to resign. Laval was then named foreign minister, a position from which he could effectuate the goal of cooperation with Germany.¹⁵ Laval was able to quickly resolve two separate issues of importance to Germany. The first related to Belgian gold reserves that had been given to the Bank of France for safekeeping after Germany’s occupation of Belgium. Just before the fall of France, these gold reserves were transferred to French West Africa to keep them out of German control. Germany now wanted to ensure that these gold reserves not fall into British hands. Initially, they were to be returned to the Belgian National Bank, and the Germans insisted that, as an occupying power, they stood in the shoes of the Belgian National Bank. Laval assented to this position.¹⁶

      A second issue after Montoire, again indicating French cooperation with Germany’s war effort, involved the French-owned Bor copper mines in Yugoslavia. Because of the need for copper in the production of war materiel, the Germans wanted to purchase these mines. Prior to Montoire, the French government rebuffed these requests. After Montoire, Laval instructed the directors of the French company to sell the Bor mines to the Germans. The sale took place and ownership was placed in German hands.¹⁷

      Laval’s first tenure with the Vichy regime was to be of short duration. On December 13, 1940, Pétain asked for the resignation of all his ministers, which he received. He then announced that he accepted the resignations of Laval and one other minister. Why Pétain sacked Laval has been the subject of much speculation over the years. Geoffrey Warner, in his political biography of Laval, concludes it was a personality clash between the military approach of Pétain and the more casual, parliamentary approach of Laval. ¹⁸ Pétain liked decision-making along clear lines of authority; Laval tended to make decisions without “going through channels.” A more mundane explanation is that Pétain was tired of Laval blowing smoke in his face, something that Laval quite literally is supposed to have done.¹⁹ Whatever the reason, Laval’s first association with the Vichy regime ended, and he was to proceed into oblivion for the next sixteen months.²⁰

      Laval as Prime Minister: April 1942 to April 1944

      By April 1942, the nature of the Second World War had changed. Following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the United States entered the war. Events on the Soviet front, however, were more likely of concern to Germany. Contrary to the expectations of Hitler and his generals, the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 did not lead to a quick victory. Even though the German military was still on the offensive on its eastern front, the war now promised to be lengthier and more demanding than Hitler and the German military had anticipated. This led to Germany expecting more from France, its vassal ally. Playing on his background as someone who could deal with Germany, Laval began to orchestrate his return to power by suggesting that only he could finesse the tension between France’s independence and its cooperation with Germany.²¹

      At this time, the United States still maintained diplomatic relations with the Vichy government. When American diplomats learned of Laval’s possible return, they made clear that this move would lead to the rupture of such relations.²² Once Hitler was informed of American pressure against Laval’s return, he “issued an ultimatum of his own to the effect that he would judge France’s willingness to collaborate with Germany by the presence or absence of Laval in the French Government.”²³ This made Laval’s return inevitable.

      On April 15, 1942, a new government was formed. Laval was to hold several ministries, including the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Laval was also designated as “head of the government,” responsible only to Pétain, now the figurehead head of state.²⁴ In effect, Laval now ruled Vichy France, with the acquiescence and support of his German overlords.

      In one critical sense, cooperation with Germany was more important to Laval in 1942 than it had been in 1940. Two years earlier, it was simply a matter of attempting to ameliorate the harshness of the German occupation and retaining whatever was left of French sovereignty. Now Germany was fighting the Soviet Union, and to Laval this made all the difference. Laval viewed the spread of Soviet communism as a greater threat to France than Germany’s National Socialism. Laval was convinced that Germany’s defeat at the hands of the Soviets would result in Soviet expansion to the Rhine, leaving France at the mercy of the Soviet Union. As Laval saw it, Germany’s interests and France’s objectives were now the same: the defeat of the communist Soviet Union.²⁵

      Thus, Laval’s oft-quoted radio statement to the French people, made during his second tenure with the Vichy government: “je veux la victoire de l’Allemagne” (“I wish for a German victory”). ²⁶ The statement certainly proved damaging to Laval at his trial in 1945. However, as he saw it, this sentiment made him a French patriot who was acting in his country’s best interests.

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