- 6/14/2025
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00:301944, the end of the war in France.
00:39The Nazis were on the run.
00:41Paris was set free.
00:43But Parisian joy turned swiftly to revenge.
01:02Hundreds of women were punished for having relationships with German soldiers.
01:05And thousands of men were executed without trial for aiding the Nazis.
01:11But this very public display of cleansing did little to sanitize a much deeper guilt.
01:21Because millions of ordinary French people had worked alongside the Nazis.
01:25The collaboration went right to the top.
01:28France's leaders had joined with the Nazis to persecute its people and rid the country of its Jews.
01:41No man epitomized French collaboration more than Pierre Laval.
01:45His activities during the Second World War still divide the French today.
01:53As Prime Minister during German occupation, it was Laval who had to deal with the brutal Third Reich.
02:00By working with Hitler, was he sheltering his people?
02:04Or was he a willing collaborator actively helping the Nazis?
02:07The decisions taken by Laval would see him become one of the most detested men in French history.
02:17But was the label deserved?
02:20Just how guilty is Pierre Laval?
02:23Pierre Laval grew up at the height of the Belle Epoque.
02:35It was France's beautiful era.
02:39It was 1910, an age of affluence, mass development and overconsumption.
02:47But France was a nation divided.
02:50Divided by class and wealth.
02:53To the working classes, the good times meant grinding poverty.
03:01Pierre Laval made his name as a lawyer defending the rights of ordinary working men.
03:06He described himself.
03:08A comrade among comrades.
03:10A worker among workers.
03:14In 1913, Laval proudly affirmed his left-wing beliefs and won election to the French legislature.
03:23It marked the beginning of his political career, but also the end of the good times for his beloved France.
03:31The outbreak of World War I in 1914 saw Germany invade Belgium and Luxembourg and then storm into France.
03:45Over 8 million French were mobilised, but Laval was fiercely anti-war, a pacifist.
04:01He refused to join the army and it almost led to his arrest.
04:04British and French forces held the German offensive along the Western Front, but at a huge cost.
04:19When the guns fell silent on the 11th of November 1918, 1.7 million French were dead and over 4 million injured.
04:32The country's infrastructure was in ruins, and they owed millions to their allies.
04:41The war claimed the life of Laval's only brother, Jean.
04:44The conflict deeply affected Laval.
04:53So as the world's powers met in Versailles to devise the post-war order,
04:58Laval was determined never to allow France to suffer the horror of war again.
05:04He believed that only politics held the key to peace in Europe.
05:07In 1924, he became a government minister.
05:16So began Laval's ascent up the greasy pole of French politics.
05:21It was a climb that saw him become under-secretary to the premier,
05:25minister of justice twice, and minister of labour.
05:29But Europe was descending into yet another dark period in its history.
05:37In 1929, stock markets and banks in New York crashed spectacularly.
05:46The crisis spread like cancer throughout the world.
05:50A subsequent Great Depression
05:52hit industrial nations like Britain, Germany and America particularly hard.
05:59In Germany, the economy crumbled.
06:02Unemployment soared, and the government collapsed.
06:07The Nazi Party seized control with Adolf Hitler as its leader.
06:23And in 1933, Hitler became chancellor and leader of Germany.
06:28By now, in Italy, Benito Mussolini, the son of a blacksmith, had seized power in a coup.
06:44He'd also declared himself dictator and turned Italy into a police state.
06:49More than 300,000 people gathered in the Piazza del Piazzato.
06:55There's only one man in Italy who can collect a strong like that.
06:59Yep, you've guessed it.
07:01Mussolini himself, Il Duce, the chief.
07:06While these two great dictators rose to power in Germany and Italy,
07:11France turned to Pierre Laval.
07:13On the 27th of January, 1931, he reached his zenith and became prime minister.
07:24His was a liberal government appointing Blaise Dien of Senegal to his cabinet,
07:29the first black African in a French government.
07:31Under Laval, France weathered the world economic storm and became the richest country in Europe.
07:49Unemployment was relatively low, and it had vast gold reserves.
07:55Laval used that wealth as a means to diplomatic ends.
07:58He wooed President Hoover and America with his Gaelic charm,
08:03and the Americans were smitten.
08:07He was named Time magazine's Man of the Year for 1931
08:10and mingled with America's finest.
08:15Laval returned to France a world statesman.
08:18He now had the credibility and authority to pursue his passion,
08:23to forge a lasting peace in Europe.
08:28The greatest threat to that peace was Germany,
08:35where Hitler was building a massive army and air force.
08:39So Laval decided to build an anti-German coalition.
08:42In 1935, he travelled to Moscow and signed an anti-German deal with Stalin.
08:57Then Laval flew to Italy to try and prize Mussolini from his alliance with Hitler.
09:01Diplomatic overtures between France and Italy have paved the way for the visit to Rome of Monsieur Laval,
09:12French foreign minister.
09:15Inside his palace, Signor Mussolini signs a pact which settles some outstanding differences
09:19which have marked the friendship between Italy and France.
09:23Monsieur Laval now signs the documents on behalf of his country.
09:26The Straser Front was a peace treaty between France, Britain and Italy,
09:34a united front against German aggression.
09:37But that unity would not last for long.
09:39Mussolini's ambition was to create a new Roman Empire.
10:01He'd built a massive military machine comprising one of the largest navies in the world.
10:06It made Italy and Mussolini a force to be reckoned with.
10:12And on October 3rd, 1935, he decided to test its strength.
10:23His grand plan began with the invasion of Abyssinia, one day Ethiopia.
10:36Abyssinia was a free, sovereign, independent nation,
10:39and this act of aggression by Mussolini caused international outrage.
10:44He wanted more colonists, and he flung his picturesque robber band
10:48into battle against almost defenseless Abyssinians.
10:51The memories of the use of poison gas
10:53and the bombing of a simple people with no planes or anti-aircraft weapon,
10:57these memories are still fresh today.
10:59The world looked to France and Britain to uphold the rule of law
11:05and deal with Mussolini.
11:11Laval, the former pacifist, was desperate to avoid war at any cost.
11:16So he and British Foreign Secretary Samuel Hoare
11:19secretly put forward a plan to carve up Abyssinia
11:22and allow Italy to stay.
11:24In return, Mussolini agreed to honour the Straser Front deal
11:29and oppose German aggression.
11:34But the so-called Hoare-Laval pact was leaked to the press.
11:38The British and French public were disgusted
11:40that their leaders had failed to stop Mussolini's aggression.
11:44The pact fell apart.
11:48Laval lost his job and would forever bear a grudge.
11:54He's very disappointed with the way that the Hoare-Laval pact turns out.
12:00And this instils in Laval a sense of disillusion with the British
12:05and this helps encourage in him
12:08an idea that the British can't really be trusted.
12:10In time, Laval would find more reasons to dislike the British.
12:17For now, he returned to the back benches,
12:20where he formed a lasting alliance with the First World War hero,
12:23Marshal Philippe Pétain.
12:26But more significant events were about to unfold
12:28that would eventually see Laval return to power
12:31and ultimately lead him to the firing squad.
12:41On September the 1st, 1939,
12:44Hitler's tanks stormed into Poland.
12:50France and Britain united to declare war on Germany.
12:53All Laval's attempts to keep the peace had come to nothing.
13:00He was horrified, telling a friend...
13:02It has begun.
13:05There will be millions of corpses.
13:07On the 10th of May, 1940,
13:18the German army launched their blitzkrieg,
13:20invading Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg.
13:26And five days later, it was France's turn.
13:30The Germans smashed their way across the border.
13:38The speed of their assault was overwhelming.
13:46They cut a deep scar into north-eastern France
13:49and headed for Paris.
13:54Thousands of French surrendered in their wake.
13:56French Prime Minister Paul Raynaud
14:00telephoned Winston Churchill.
14:03I woke him up.
14:06I told him,
14:07we have lost the battle.
14:09We are beaten.
14:11But Churchill seemed so astonished
14:13that I had to repeat,
14:15we are beaten, we have lost the battle.
14:17Impossible, he said.
14:23On the 14th of June, 1940,
14:25German forces entered Paris.
14:31At 10 p.m. that night,
14:33President Raynaud resigned.
14:36His replacement was Pierre Laval's ally,
14:4084-year-old Marshal Philippe Pétain.
14:43Pétain was loved in France as a war hero,
14:45but even this experienced warrior
14:47could see that the French had no choice.
14:49Surrender or face annihilation.
14:53The game was up.
14:54Pétain told the French to lay down their arms.
15:00But not all Frenchmen agreed.
15:09Brigadier-General Charles de Gaulle,
15:11under-secretary for war
15:12and a tank commander,
15:14refused to surrender.
15:15Along with other senior military officers,
15:19he fled to Britain,
15:20from where he addressed his nation.
15:21L'honneur,
15:23le bon sens,
15:26l'intérêt supérieur de la patrie,
15:30commande à tous les Français libres
15:32de continuer le combat,
15:35là où ils seront
15:37et comme ils pourront.
15:40Vive la France,
15:42libre,
15:43dans l'honneur
15:44et dans l'indépendance.
15:45But there was little response.
16:01For millions of French people,
16:03running to the hills
16:04and joining the resistance
16:05just wasn't an option.
16:06They had families
16:09and responsibilities.
16:11They had farms to run
16:12and businesses to maintain.
16:17So despite de Gaulle's call to arms,
16:20most French people
16:21accepted their fate.
16:22Four days later,
16:30Marshal Patin
16:31agreed to Hitler's terms of surrender.
16:37France
16:37was split in two.
16:40Germany
16:40would control the north
16:42while Patin
16:43would govern
16:44the south of the country
16:45from the small town of Vichy.
16:52The surrender
16:54was signed
16:55at Compiègne,
16:56northeast of Paris.
16:58The meeting
16:59was even held
17:00in the same railway carriage
17:01used by the Allies
17:03to accept the German surrender
17:04in 1918.
17:07For France,
17:09the humiliation
17:10was complete.
17:12France
17:12was complete.
17:22Hitler
17:26was ecstatic.
17:41News of the surrender
17:43was broadcast
17:43by loudspeaker cars
17:45to a devastated French people.
17:52in the same way
17:53of the French people.
17:54They were
17:55mobilised and disarmoured
17:55under the German control,
17:56respectively the Italians.
18:19On the 11th of July 1940,
18:21Marshal Pétain appointed Pierre Laval as his prime minister.
18:25Laval's return to the cabinet was under very different conditions than before.
18:29This time, he would have to work with the Nazis.
18:33Millions of people were now looking to him to protect and defend them,
18:37and he would soon learn what collaboration would mean.
18:40A large part of the French navy was moored off Merz al-Kabir in Algeria.
18:52Fearful that Hitler would get his hands on it,
18:54Winston Churchill demanded Laval hand it over or have it destroyed.
18:59Laval refused.
19:04So Churchill sent a task force led by the biggest battlecruiser in the world, HMS Hood.
19:10When it reached Merz al-Kabir,
19:16Churchill gave orders to sink the French fleet.
19:181,300 French sailors were killed.
19:43Laval was outraged with Churchill and demanded a counterattack against his former ally, the British.
19:52Pétain refused, but Hitler was impressed.
19:56Laval had passed his first test.
19:59Very soon, Hitler would ask Laval for even more.
20:03As autumn of 1940 approached,
20:12Hitler was planning the invasion of Britain.
20:16Pétain and Laval were summoned by the Führer.
20:18The French government chief, Marshal Pétain,
20:21is going to join in and will be with military honor.
20:24In a key meeting in the town of Montoir,
20:41Hitler asked Pétain to join him and declare war on Britain.
20:45Pétain again refused, but agreed to an historic compromise.
20:50He revealed the outcome of the meeting to the French people.
20:58I responded freely to the Führer's invitation.
21:02I underwent no diktat, no pressure from him.
21:06A collaboration was envisioned between our two countries.
21:11I accepted the principles.
21:14The details will be discussed later.
21:16At the time, collaboration did not seem to be such a dirty word.
21:27Millions of French people were already sharing their lives with the Nazis.
21:32Collaborating was seen as normal.
21:35For instance, the famous French designer Coco Chanel
21:38conducted a long affair with a German officer
21:40who installed her in his suite in the Ritz Hotel.
21:44And world-famous entertainer Maurice Chevalier
21:51would soon be singing to German soldiers in Berlin.
21:54All right. Thank you, Maurice.
21:57Even Jean Borotra,
21:59the legendary Wimbledon tennis champion, became a collaborator.
22:03He became Vichy's Minister of Sport,
22:06though he always claimed he and Pétain were true French patriots.
22:10It was a thing which almost all the Frenchmen wanted very badly,
22:16to see the Germans going out.
22:19And, of course, he knew that it was going to be a long process,
22:23and he could say nothing about it.
22:25He never said that to anybody, I think.
22:27But he had to manage at that time
22:31to see to it that France could leave until that happened.
22:36Until then, the people of Vichy, France,
22:43would have to coexist with the Germans.
22:48Hitler didn't allow Pétain to keep his own Vichy police force.
22:55Soldier Jacques Deleroux
22:56was one of those who collaborated by signing up.
22:59Maréchal Pétain's view of collaboration was that he should do as little as possible to help Hitler.
23:19One of those exceptions was Pierre Laval.
23:39At the end of November 1940,
23:42he signed over 220 tons of French gold to the Nazis.
23:46Laval had pleased Hitler again,
23:51but Pétain was furious,
23:54and Laval was sacked.
23:57Laval went home to his family and local Parisian politics.
24:01But he'd already become a hated figure.
24:08Laval was shot twice by a would-be assassin.
24:10The gunman was sentenced to death,
24:16but Laval spared him.
24:19During his recovery,
24:21Pétain suggested he return to government,
24:23and even Hitler intervened,
24:25to speed the comeback of a trusted collaborator.
24:28But how things had changed.
24:36When Laval left government in 1940,
24:39the Second World War was essentially a European conflict.
24:43Now it had assumed global proportions.
24:47The Germans had invaded the Soviet Union,
24:49but their advance had been halted by fierce fighting.
24:51In the East,
25:01Japan had attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor.
25:07In support of his Japanese allies,
25:09Hitler had declared war on the USA.
25:11The might of the American military machine
25:20had now been unleashed on Germany.
25:33Hitler simply could not compete.
25:37He was fighting a war on many fronts
25:39and was struggling to keep pace.
25:41The war was going badly.
25:52In Russia,
25:53the German army was bogged down
25:54on the outskirts of Stalingrad.
26:04In the air,
26:06the British and now American planes
26:07were bombing German cities.
26:11Hitler was running short of tanks,
26:18guns,
26:19ammunition,
26:20and most importantly,
26:22men.
26:26Production of weapons and equipment
26:28was at full capacity
26:29and German workers were stretched to the limit.
26:32Pierre Laval could have used the situation
26:45to renegotiate the terms
26:46of the collaboration with Germany.
26:49But instead,
26:50he decided to reaffirm his desire
26:51to work with the Nazis,
26:54stating,
26:54No threat will prevent me
26:56from pursuing agreement
26:58and reconciliation
26:58with Germany
27:00because this policy
27:02is planted solely
27:03by concern for France.
27:05Hitler asked Laval
27:08to follow those words
27:09with action.
27:11He demanded a quarter of a million
27:13skilled French workers
27:14be sent to Germany
27:15to help the war effort.
27:17How could Laval
27:18appease Hitler
27:19and protect his people?
27:23Was this a collaboration
27:24too far?
27:24Laval?
27:30Laval negotiated with Hitler
27:32and won a compromise.
27:34One French prisoner of war
27:36would be returned to France
27:37in exchange
27:38for three workers
27:39sent to Germany.
27:44La Relève,
27:45or exchange,
27:47got underway immediately.
27:48The first few thousand POWs
27:56were released
27:56from German caps
27:57and loaded onto trains
27:59heading back to France.
28:02To the returning POWs,
28:05Laval was a hero.
28:10He personally welcomed home
28:12the first train load
28:13at Compiègne.
28:18As the POWs disembarked,
28:24they swapped places
28:24with French workers
28:25who then left
28:26for the foundries
28:27of Germany's
28:28industrial heartland,
28:30the Rome.
28:36But this rare French triumph
28:38was tarnished
28:39when Laval justified the scheme
28:41in a newspaper article.
28:43I hope for German victory
28:45because without it,
28:47Bolshevism will install itself
28:49everywhere tomorrow.
28:52That hope for a German victory
28:54would return to haunt him.
28:58Until now,
28:59Laval's collaboration with Hitler
29:01had concerned materials,
29:02goods and workers.
29:05But now,
29:06Hitler asked him for blood.
29:08For years,
29:16the Nazis had rounded up Jews
29:17from all over Europe
29:18and interned them,
29:20awaiting the answer
29:21to what they called
29:21the Jewish question.
29:25By January 1942,
29:27they had their answer.
29:30Death camps were built
29:31in Poland.
29:32Jews from all over Europe
29:34would be transferred
29:34to the camps
29:35and liquidated.
29:45At the start
29:46of the occupation of France,
29:47a commission
29:48for Jewish questions
29:49had been set up
29:50and there was no shortage
29:51of Frenchmen
29:52willing to help
29:53let the Nazis
29:53answer those questions.
29:57I think there's no big difference
30:01between France and Angleterre
30:03and even less with America
30:05and this issue.
30:05My idea was that
30:10it had to eliminate
30:11the Jewish influence
30:12from sectors
30:13where they were extremely
30:15influential,
30:15where they were
30:16focused on the public opinion.
30:16anti-semitism laws
30:20had also been repealed.
30:21no French French
30:23or no French.
30:2590,000 to the唐-
30:2590,000 are of real whites
30:27pure,
30:27pure,
30:27of any other racial mezokers.
30:29There isn't even a Jewish.
30:31This is an issue
30:32from a médicament
30:33he accomplished
30:34some years
30:36among the Aryans,
30:37Mongols
30:38and girls.
30:39The Jewish
30:40has so much
30:41a face,
30:41a body,
30:42and a attitude
30:43and gestures.
30:44Thousands of Jews, gypsies and communists in occupied France
30:53had been sent to internment camps,
30:55including the biggest here at Drancy, near Paris.
30:59All this happened while Pierre Laval was in his political wilderness.
31:08But just after Laval's return to office in July 1942,
31:12one of the most infamous round-ups took place in Paris.
31:16During Operation Spring Breeze, 13,000 foreign-born Jews,
31:22men, women and children, were arrested.
31:27Any childless couples were taken straight to the Drancy camp.
31:32But families were kept at the winter velodrome in terrible conditions
31:36and then deported to the Auschwitz death camp.
31:39This all took place in German-occupied France.
31:43It had nothing to do with Laval.
31:45But it is now known that the Vichy government shed no tears
31:49over the fate of the foreign Jews in France,
31:51who were seen as a nuisance.
31:55Laval even called them the dregs.
31:58The effect of the round-up was to drive hundreds
32:08into the arms of the French resistance.
32:13In the countryside, they were called the Maquis.
32:17Up in the High Savoy, in the Pyrenees and in other mountain districts,
32:22the reborn France is being nurtured to lusty manhood by the Maquis,
32:26those bands of young men who, in the words of de Gaulle,
32:29do not accept defeat.
32:32Organised sabotage has reached proportions highly alarming to the enemy.
32:36One of the most recent triumphs of the Maquis
32:39was the blowing up at Grenoble of a German barracks,
32:42killing 500 Nazis, wounding many more.
32:45They're worried about Marseille as a city.
33:11Marseille has a really bad reputation.
33:13It's a city which is associated with gangsterism in the 1930s,
33:17with the black market.
33:18And so the Germans are worried that this is going to be a city
33:21that's going to be a difficult area to police.
33:26Hitler called Marseille the cancer of Europe and sent in the SS.
33:32But fearing a bloodbath,
33:34Pierre Laval convinced Hitler to let his own police force run the operation.
33:37They say to the Germans,
33:43we will carry out raids across the city, identity checks.
33:47We will go into people's houses and see that they're in order,
33:52see that they're not prostitutes, they're not Jews, etc.
33:54We'll do this across the city.
33:56But it wasn't enough for the SS,
33:57who insisted the old port be demolished.
34:00They're worried about these narrow streets in the old parts of Marseille,
34:05around the Vieux-port, the Pas Niye district, as it's called.
34:08They're worried about the fact that this could be a place
34:10where a city is going to be forced to be abandoned for the whole country.
34:14And then he says to the Port,
34:14it the middle is going to get into all the cities
34:15and the blacks which will still have also been abandoned.
34:18demolished. They're worried about these narrow streets in the old parts of Marseille around
34:24the Vieux-Port, Le Panier district, as it's called. They're worried about the fact that
34:28this could be a place where resistors hang out. On the 16th of January 1943, the assault
34:38on Marseille began.
35:021,400 buildings were destroyed. And although the operation was intended to root out
35:08terrorists, 1,600 mostly foreign Jews were taken to Dorsey. It was the French police
35:17who loaded the Jews onto the trains.
35:21And it was an incredible spectacle, you know. And then we saw all these people evacuated
35:27from the Vieux-Port with bags, bags, glasses, children, well, for some of them. And these
35:37people, we helped them up in their wagon. We went with them, a guard by wagon.
35:44But we said that the Germans sent them to work to the East. The reality of the concentration
35:51camps, the camps of extermination, we discovered that at the end of the war, not after the
35:57occupation, let's say.
35:59Once again, Laval had calculated that doing the Nazis' bidding was the best policy for
36:14protecting Vichy France. But across the Mediterranean Sea, the war in North Africa was about to wreck
36:21his delicate plan.
36:28The German army was reeling from the effects of the British assault at El Alame.
36:32Then Allied forces led by the Americans attacked the Germans from the west. The German army
36:55beat a hasty retreat.
37:02Hitler's southwestern flank was now exposed to the American forces. He couldn't risk an
37:07Allied invasion of France via Vichy.
37:13He had no choice but to take over Vichy and occupy the whole of France.
37:23The invasion took just two days. On the 19th of November, all of France was under Hitler's
37:29control.
37:34He summoned Pierre Laval and demanded more workers for Germany. Yet another quarter of a
37:43million.
37:44Laval stalled again, but he had to make a key concession promising to deal with the French
37:49resistance once and for all.
37:51The resistance, aided by British intelligence, was growing in strength and numbers. Encouraged,
38:14enthused and equipped by General Charles de Gaulle and his free French army in London, it was
38:19becoming a ruthless guerrilla army. They sabotaged railway lines. They ambushed German troops
38:26and assassinated officers.
38:32Hitler demanded action.
38:36He ordered Laval to create a new pro-German force called the Milice. It marked a turning point
38:43for Laval.
38:48By June 1943, the Milice had signed up over 30,000 men. They conducted summary executions, assassinations, and helped capture Jews and other enemies of the Reich for deportation.
39:03Until this point, Laval could argue he had balanced Berlin's demands with the welfare of the French.
39:15But with the formation of the Milice, he had crossed the line. He became an active persecutor of his own people.
39:23The Milice quickly expanded operations, committing terrible crimes.
39:32The Milice became an active persecutor of the tribunals.
39:34The militia of the tribunals were stationed in the prisons.
39:39A little everywhere in France.
39:41I heard them in the prison of Limoges.
39:43And the people who were condemned, when we took them to the road to shoot them,
39:49they all sang the Marseillaise.
39:52And the Marseillaise, I heard from a distraught ear, like everyone.
39:57But I never heard them in the same way.
40:00Just as Laval was losing his grip on law and order, Germany was losing its grip on Europe.
40:15Its army was in full retreat.
40:18Stalin's Red Army had driven them out of the Soviet Union and had retaken Poland.
40:23The Allied armies had landed in Italy and liberated Rome.
40:36And Berlin was being bombed around the clock.
40:44The people of Berlin, like those of so many other German cities,
40:47are now getting the full taste of the war they themselves so carelessly loosed on the world.
40:52Losses on the Eastern Front were huge.
41:00Hitler was getting desperate,
41:02and demanded Laval send him more French workers to rebuild his broken army.
41:10Again, Laval stalled.
41:13But soon matters were taken from his hands.
41:22On the 6th of June 1944, the Allies landed in northern France.
41:40D-Day was the beginning of the end for the Third Reich.
41:43But rather than join the Allied troops in fighting the Germans,
41:49Laval told his countrymen...
41:51You are not in the war.
41:53You must not take part in the fighting.
41:55If you do not observe this rule, if you show proof of indiscipline,
41:59you will provoke reprisals, the harshness of which the government would be powerless to moderate.
42:05You would suffer both physically and materially.
42:09At this moment, fraud with drama, when the war has been carried on to our territory,
42:15show by your worthy and disciplined attitude that you are thinking of France and only of her.
42:29But no one in France was listening to him.
42:31Towns and villages all over northern France were liberated, one by one.
42:49With American forces on the outskirts of Paris, Laval, Pétain and the detested Mélisse
42:55were taken to Germany and kept at the castle at Sigmaringen, on the banks of the Danube.
43:04In Paris, the resistance seized their chance.
43:06They grabbed what weapons they could and fought the Germans in the streets.
43:16As the Nazis flee for the Reich, they suffer at the hands of French patriots.
43:20The German crew leaps from the frying pan into the fire.
43:33They were even joined by some of Laval's Vichy police.
43:41Contrairement à ce que beaucoup de gens pensent,
43:43beaucoup de policiers ont été résistants.
43:45Il y a beaucoup de policiers qui ont rendu des services
43:50en faisant des fausses cartes d'identité.
43:52Ça a été mon cas.
43:54Mais c'était des petites choses, même si on sauve une vie humaine,
44:00au milieu de cette énorme tragédie.
44:05C'était des grandes sables.
44:08Mais bon, c'était...
44:10Si on sauve une vie, on sauve une vie, hein.
44:11On the 19th of August, 1944, Paris was liberated.
44:24General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French, returned in triumph.
44:29rebocat de la France,
44:32de la France aITY un-ternelle France.
44:36Libéré par son peuple avec le concours.
44:41Des armées de la France, avec l'appui et le concours de la France toute entière,
44:45c'est-à-dire de la France qui se porte, c'est-à-dire de la seule France,
44:52de la vraie France,
44:54The Allied army now pushed on towards Germany, and in April 1945, they reached Sigmaringen.
45:11The net was closing in on Pierre Laval, and he fled to Spain.
45:15Meanwhile, Charles de Gaulle was installed as president of a provisional government, and
45:25negotiated an extradition order to return Laval to Paris.
45:31Laval was arrested and charged with plotting against the security of the state, and of
45:36collaborating with the enemy.
45:38He was locked up, awaiting trial.
45:41The rest of France descended into recrimination and reprisal.
45:53Nazi collaborators were humiliated, beaten, and murdered.
45:59Ironically, many ended up in the Drancy camp, waiting for a trial rather than a death train.
46:05News from France includes this eminently satisfactory picture from Drancy, near Paris.
46:11Once a concentration camp for Jews during the German occupation, it is now full of collaborationists.
46:19Pierre Laval would soon have his day in court.
46:23But first he was called as a witness in the trial of Marshal Patin.
46:26Despite Laval's unwavering support for Patin, the former president was convicted of treason and sentenced to death.
46:45De Gaulle commuted the sentence, and he lived out the rest of his days on an island off the Atlantic coast.
46:50Now it was Laval's turn.
46:59His trial began on the 11th of October, 1945.
47:06Laval, the skilled negotiator and talented barrister, knew that his defence was futile.
47:15Laval's legal team had never met him, and before long they asked to be relieved.
47:18The trial descended into chaos, with constant outbursts from the jury, and arguments between the prosecutors and Laval.
47:31Eventually, Laval decided to remain silent, and then to be tried in absentia.
47:3733 witnesses were called, but only four appeared.
47:41None for the defence.
47:48The key piece of evidence against him was the newspaper article from the 22nd of June, 1942, where Laval had called for a German victory.
48:01He was sentenced to death.
48:03At sunrise, a firing squad files into the prison where Laval is held.
48:15An empty hearse arrived.
48:17In the enclosed courtyard of the prison, Laval is led to face his executioners.
48:27Laval was tied to a stake.
48:28He asked permission to give the order to fire himself, but was refused.
48:35From the prison came cries of,
48:36Vive Laval!
48:37Long live Laval!
48:40Laval himself cried,
48:42Vive la France!
48:47A traitor is dead.
48:49Pierre Laval now lies in an unhonoured cemetery,
48:52with his fellow criminals against mankind.
48:54But was Pierre Laval a criminal against mankind?
49:10At his trial, Laval had asked to be judged not by his words, but by his deeds.
49:15In his defence, Laval was a negotiator and a compromiser,
49:21whose skill with words was his only weapon in a deadly game with the Nazis.
49:26And he'd been dealt a poor hand.
49:29His country had been defeated and occupied.
49:33Someone had to face the Nazis across the negotiating table.
49:37Laval was that person.
49:40Sacrifices and compromises were inevitable.
49:42He would claim that he had won the return of thousands of prisoners of war,
49:49albeit at a cost.
49:53And he had repeatedly and successfully fended off Hitler's demands for more workers.
49:59But against this, he did little to save thousands of foreign Jews,
50:06who were deported to the death camps and exterminated.
50:11And when he set up the milice,
50:13he knew he'd created a monster
50:15that would run rampant through the country,
50:18murdering his own people.
50:19It was by these actions that Pierre Laval stands condemned to this day.
50:27The End
50:35Sous-titled Sands
50:39Transcription by CastingWords
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