In 1940, and after the battle of France, the Germans and the French signed an armistice on June 22, 1940 by which France was divided into a German occupation zone in the north and west, a small Italian occupation zone in the southeast , and an unoccupied zone, the free zone , In the south. This free zone would be the Vichy Regime , in which, after abolishing the Constitution, Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain acquired full powers . The marshal had a noteworthy past (brilliant soldier who stood out in the First World War, member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, minister, member of the French Academy, ambassador...) but since he became Head of State... Everything changed:a collaborationist government with the Germans was introduced, public liberties and sessions of the National Assembly were suspended, Jews of foreign origin were persecuted... Jews of French origin were excluded from public service and the army, and they were prohibited from practicing certain professions.
Following this ban, Pierre Masse , senator for the Hérault department, sent a letter to Petain:
Lord Marshal. I have read that he declares that no Jew can be a French officer anymore, not even those of strictly French descent. I would be grateful if you would tell me if I should go and collect his stripes from my brother, a second lieutenant in the 36th Infantry Regiment, who died at Douamont in April 1916; to my son-in-law, second lieutenant in the 14th Dragoon Regiment, killed in Belgium in May 1940; to my nephew, J.F. Masse, lieutenant in the 23rd Colonial, killed at Rehel in May 1940. My son Jacques, second lieutenant in the 62nd Alpine Chasseurs battalion, wounded at Soupir in June 1940, can he keep the stripes? Can I leave my brother the medal won in Neuvile-Saint Vaast, with which he was buried?
That letter made clear the betrayal of the French government.
After World War II, Pétain was found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death. The death sentence would be commuted, due to his advanced age, to life imprisonment. And to finish a pearl from the marshal, referring to Franco:
The cleanest sword in the West
Sources and image:Vichy France, Learning from the past – José Manuel Pina