Laval, Pierre (1883–1945),
Vichy French politician who initiated and pursued the policy of
collaboration with the Germans.
A working-class lawyer, Laval became the Socialist Party's youngest deputy in 1914. He later became an ‘independent socialist’, drifted to the right politically, and during the 1930s formed three administrations. At this time, he was no supporter of Hitler and the abortive Hoare–Laval Plan ( December 1935), which was designed to give Mussolini much of what he wanted in Abyssinia, was part of his effort to align France with Fascist Italy to contain German expansionism. When the British repudiated it he resigned, and remained in the political wilderness until the war he had bitterly opposed brought him back into government on 25 June 1940 as minister of state and vice-premier in
Pétain's government.
Laval now became, as he put it, ‘the official receiver for our bankrupt country’. He ushered in the new constitution that made Pétain head of state with dictatorial powers, and was named his official successor. He immediately tried to establish a Franco-German accord, and by arranging for Pétain to meet Hitler at Montoire in October 1940 he ensured that Pétain would rubber-stamp his policy of collaboration, which he expected to bring concessions from the Germans. However, none was forthcoming and in December 1940 Pétain manoeuvred him into resigning.
When neither of his successors proved competent negotiators with the Germans, and having recovered from a wound inflicted in Paris by a would-be assassin the previous August, Laval was recalled by Pétain in April 1942 to head the Vichy government. He now wielded unprecedented power for he was also given the ministries of foreign affairs, interior, and information. In June 1942 he broadcast an appeal for Frenchmen to work in Germany (see also
France, 2) and then stated that, to avoid
communism establishing itself everywhere, ‘I wish for a German victory.’ He failed to prevent the Germans from taking over unoccupied France after the Allied
North African campaign landings in November 1942—which resulted in Pétain's being forced to give him the power to issue decrees and laws—but he still persisted in his policy of trying to extract concessions through collaboration long after the Germans had lost interest, hinting that France might declare war on the Allies and suggesting the formation of a French force to reconquer North Africa. By then Franco-German relations had deteriorated into mutual suspicion and recrimination. Laval, always supremely confident, remained certain that his policy would succeed, but the more he tried to come to a working arrangement with the Germans the more they demanded, and the more his countrymen came to hate and despise him for his collaboration. His negotiations during 1943 to hand over foreign Jews living in France, and to provide French workers for Germany, only increased this hatred—though it has been said in his favour that by sacrificing some he saved a larger number. Pétain, who loathed him, tried twice more to remove him.
By early 1944 the Germans were dictating the composition of the Vichy government, and, sandwiched between firm Nazi supporters such as
Marcel Déat on the one hand and the ever-increasing power of the resistance on the other, Laval saw his policy collapsing about him. In August 1944, after he had failed to resurrect the Third Republic, he was ordered by the Germans to Belfort, on the Franco-German border, and then to Sigmaringen in southern Germany, with his government.
In May 1945 a German aircraft flew him to Barcelona where he was told war criminals were not wanted. ‘But I am a peace criminal,’ he protested. In July he flew to Austria but was handed over to the French who sentenced him to death after what has been described as ‘a disgracefully unfair trial’ ( P. Calvocoressi
et al.,
Total War, London, 1989, p. 329). Minutes before his execution he took cyanide but survived it to face the firing squad. See also
France, 3(c).
Bibliography
Kupferman, F. , Laval (Paris, 1987).
Warner, G. , Pierre Laval and the Eclipse of France (London, 1968).
