Following the events of February 6, 1934 and after the resignation of the Daladier government, the President of the Republic, Albert Lebrun, addresses himself to Gaston Doumergue, former President of the Republic, to form the new Cabinet. Doumergue then calls upon Marshal Pétain to take the War Ministry. However Pétain, who would have preferred the National Education Ministry, accepts and thus takes his first steps in political arena.
The Doumergue government falls in November, 1934 and public opinion is increasingly favourable to Marshal Pétain. Gustave Hervé who directs the newspaper «La Victoire», translated the wish of public opinion, in February 1935, in an article which has remained famous: « Pétain is the one we need ».
In April 1935, Leon Daudet writes in L’Action française : « At the present time, the real President of the Council should be Marshal Pétain, and with the full powers ». On June 1, 1935, Pétain accepts the post of Minister of State in the Fernand Buisson ministry which claims exceptional powers to solve the crisis. The ministry will fall the very same day.
It is then the victory of the Front Populaire in 1936. Marshal Pétain withdraws from political life but stays in contact with national and international opinion while carrying with prestige the word of France.
On May 14, 1940, following the period of the Silent War, the German offensive breaks through the French front near Sedan; the road to Paris is open.
On May 17, the President of the Council, Paul Reynaud, urgently recalls Marshal Pétain, extraordinary ambassador to Spain and General Franco, to have him occupy the post of Vice-president of the Council. Franco tells the Marshal not to leave : « You are the winner of Verdun. Do not associate your name with the defeat caused by others ». I know that, Général, answers Pétain, « but my homeland calls me and I owe myself to her, perhaps is this the last service which I will be able to render to her. » Une new page is opening.
General Weygand is named Chief of the Armies to replace General Gamelin, but it is too late. The drama of Dunkirk us upon us, the English re-embark and rejoin their country. Our army is cut in sections, it delivers nothing more than some heroic but hopeless combats here and there for the honor due the flag. Paris will be lost, the Government moves to Bordeaux. Hundreds of thousands of French and Belgians accompany the government in its escape. It is the exodus of a whole population driven out of its homes by an immense panic which turns to a complete rout.
On June 12, General Weygand, noting the impossibility of reassembling the army and stopping the enemy, advises that an armistice be sought as soon as possible so as to avoid much greater damage. Paris is occupied on June 14 1940. England, threatened by invasion, refuses to send us reinforcements. America, by the voice of its President, ensures us of « its extreme sympathy ». France stands all alone before its misfortune, every passing day bringing the enemy closer to the the Mediterranean coast. The German tide threatens to sweep the entire country and to invade Africa.
Marshal Pétain refuses to leave continental France : «It is outside the realm of possibility, without deserting, that France be abandonned. No matter what happens, the duty of the Government is to remain in the country, under penalty of no longer being recognized as such. To deprive France of its natural defenders at a time of general distress is to deliver Her to the enemy. It is to kill the very soul of France. I will remain among the French people to share their sorrows and their miseries. »
From left to right: General Huntziger, Mr. Alibert, the Marshal, Mr. Baudouin, Admiral Darlan, Messrs. Caziot, Peyrouton, Laval, Bouthillier and Belin.
June 16, Paul Reynaud gives his resignation and proposes to entrust the Government to "an eminent personage collecting the unanimous respect of the Nation". He appoints the Pétain marshal. Jeanneney and Herriot, presidents of the Senate and the House of Commons, confirm this choice. Leon Blum itself will authorize 2 Socialists (River and February), who will respectively take the wallet of the Colonies and that of Work, to enter this Government of which he knows the declared intentions. The Pétain marshal succeeds Paul Reynaud and form his ministry. The Pétain government collects the quasi-unanimous adhesion of the Parliament and the nation. Its legality and its legitimacy are disputed by nobody. The foreign powers, of the Vatican in the USSR, delegate ambassadors to him.
On June 17, 1940, Philippe Pétain broadcasts his first message the French people to announce to them that he has asked for an armistice (The Call of June 17). Approved by the Council of Ministers chaired by Albert Lebrun, President of the Republic, the Armistice will be signed at Rethondes on June 22, 1940.
On June 29, the Pétain government leaves Bordeaux and settles in Vichy. The law of July 10, 1940, by a vote of the two Assemblies (569 votes for, 80 votes against and 17 abstentions) entrusts to Marshal Pétain the reponsibilities of Head of the State, with full powers.
It sets his objectives the promulgation of a new Constitution for the French State, guaranteeing the rights of labour, of the family and the homeland. This Constitution will be prepared within the framework defined by the assemblies of Third Républic but will not be promulgated, Marshal Pétain considering that it can only done from Paris, in a liberated France. He thus institutes a provisional regime for the duration of the occupation.
Respectful of the mandate of the assemblies, Marshal Pétain undertakes his work of renovation : organization of the Nation within its natural frameworks of families, professions, communities - organization of the social life in order to curtail special privileges and to supress the proletarian condition.
Such a program can be successful only if accompanied by a vigorous rebirth of the spirit of the Nation and by restoring spiritual values to a position of honor. Marshal Pétain sets the foundation of his regime : Agricultural guild, Rights of labour, War Verterans association, Youth camps. This hierarchical and social Republic is based on advancement by talent and merit.
From the outset, the government of Marshal Pétain undertakes a programme of reform under the name of National Revolution, of which the goal is to restructure French society and provide the foundations of the French State which reflects national and social characteristics.
Using the slogan « Work, Family, Homeland » and having for emblem the Francisque, the National Revolution emphasizes a return to a traditional, patriarchal and hierarchical society guided by the moral order : It preaches traditional values, such as religion, patriotism, the importance of the family and each person’s work. War veterans and youth are at the heart of this new society with creation, on August 29, 1940, of the French Veterans’ Legion and with the institution on July 30 1940 of the « Chantiers », specialized youth camps.
Breaking with socialism and capitalism, the working world is reorganized within a corporative framework based upon a new charter of the rights of labour (law of October 4, 1941). In parallel, of the steering committees by production sector are created (August 16, 1940).
In announcing a « new order », this government is simultaneously traditional and modern. And it will strive to implement the Marshal’s work in all domains.
Confronted with German demands, Marshal Pétain’s action tends firstly to preserve the essential : the independence of the French State, the defence of the empire, the protection of the fleet, the return of the prisoners and the reduction of the crushing occupation cost. Accordingly, on July 16, Pétain agrees to meet Hitler at Montoire on October 24, 1940. The handshake between the two Heads of State, a matter of protocol, will be exploited after the war by the adversaries of the Marshal’s regime who will make it the symbol of collaboration.
However, 4 months after the defeat, this interview was the first step in the nation’s recovery, a step which it is advisable to place back into the international context of the time : the English and Gaullists attacked Dakar on the 23rd and 24th of September, 1940. They were pushed back because the Marshal was determined to defend the French Empire against any aggression, regardless of where it originated, according to the conventions contained in the Armistice agreement. Hitler, reassured on this point, considers that he might be able to free up some forces on the western front in favour of the East. In addition, Franco, on the Marshal’s intervention, refuses to lend support to Hitler’s desire to attack Gibraltar and cross the strait to seize our African possessions. Hitler abandons the project. The French Empire is thus saved.
German Minister von Renthe-Finck, will write that Montoire, « constitutes the greatest defeat of German policy with respect to France. We obtained nothing there (…) if there had not been Montoire, there would probably have been no allied landing in North Africa. »
Doctor Paul Schmidt, Führer’s interpreter, concludes in his Memoirs, the recital of the interview with these highly suggestive words : « I am inclined to regard the winner of Verdun as the winner in the duel of diplomacy at Montoire ».
As Head of State will point out it in his speech to the nation, on October 30, in which he recognizes that « this meeting caused some hopes and caused some concerns»… « A collaboration was envisioned between our two countries… I accepted it in principle. The methods will be discussed later on. » By using the passive form (« collaboration was envisioned …»), the Marshal takes his distances. It is but a possibility. He does not go back on anything he has stood for. He will wait and see. From the Marshal’s viewpoint, collaboration was a series of things yet to come emanating from the clauses within the Armistice, a series of « give-and-take », of small advantages in exchange for small concessions. At the time of the interview at Montoire, Hitler, to whom Franco refused access to Gibraltar, hoped to obtain bases in North Africa from Pétain. But Pétain made sure that the discussions on the subject would bog down. The Head of the State nevertheless kept contacts with the British (the Rougier and Chevalier missions), with the United States (via their ambassador, Admiral Leahy) and with Spain’s Franco.Confronted with German, English and American demands, the French Government, to the extent possible, always stood up for its rights without concession. Proof of that is found in the arrest, judicial condemnation, death sentence and execution of 42 spies in the employ of Axis powers. Found also in the victorious response by the French Navy to the English fleet in Dakar, by the determination of the Admiral Robert confronted by American claims aimed at capturing Bank of France’s gold stored in Martinique.
On May 20, 1940, a few days after the invasion of France, of the Germans place companies abandoned by their owners, under the provisional direction of administrators appointed by them. By way of priority, this measure touches Jewish goods whose owners have fled. The Germans continue with the ordinance of September 27, 1940 while imposing upon French administrative authorities the opening of files for people belonging to the Jewish religion. Not wanting to let Reich interfere with legislation for which the French government is solely responsible. With the law of August 16, 1940, the Government reacts by creating, the Industrial and Commercial Steering Committees which interpose the State between the occupant and the enterprises. On September 10, 1940, the French State strengthens its right to indicate the provisional administrators on its own. After having protested on several occasions against German interference on the Jewish question and on racial measures taken by the occupant, Marshal Pétain will sign the first act bearing on the status of Jews (law of October 3, 1940) which follows by a few days the German ordinance of September 27. This statute whose administrative measures are discriminatory « in no way was intended for the disappearance of Jews », wrote René Rémond in his foreword to the work of Asher Cohen : Persecutions and Rescues. It establishes a « numerus clausus » restricting or forbidding access by Jews to certain professions. This measure was received with indifference by French public opinion which expresses some concerns as to the undue influence of the Jewish community. At the beginning of the summer of 1942, the Germans inform the French Government that they have decided to deport all Jews residing in France, making no distinction between Jews of French nationality and foreign or stateless Jews. Confronted by protests from the French Government, the Germans propose a compromise, indicating that the French Jews would be saved if the French police force took part in the operation. Marshal Pétain and the Government are obliged to submit to this blackmail so as to protect, as a matter of priority, the Jews of French nationality.
The following figures are eloquent : In 1940, 730,000 Jews lived in the French sphere of influence (400,000 in North Africa and 330,000 in continental France). 76,000 were deported of which 3% survived. Thus, 90% of the Jews residing in France and North Africa escaped the final solution While 10% were among its victims. This survival rate of 90% for France is to be compared with a survival rate of 6% which, according to Raul Hilberg, applies to the combined Jewish communities of Germany, Austria, Belgium, Greece, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland and Yugoslavia.
It should be noted that Marshal Pétain had always been opposed – with success - to the mandatory wearing of a yellow star in the non-occupied zone and in French North Africa.