Trial of Riom

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The Riom Trial ( February 19, 1942 - May 21, 1943 ) was a trial in Vichy-France against the leaders of the last governments of the French Third Republic of the Popular Front under Léon Blum . The Marshal Pétain promoted show trial should be the responsibility of the accused for the declaration of war of France on 3 September 1939, the German Empire , two days after the start of the German invasion of Poland find and defeat of the 1940th The main aim was to blame those members of the government who were regarded as Jews for the outcome of the war. The internationally acclaimed trial took place in Riom , in the zone held by Pétain.

Background and defendants

The Supreme Court, established by decree of July 30, 1940, was empowered by ordinance by the Vichy government to “judge whether former ministers or their direct associates have betrayed the affairs of their ministries through actions that contributed to them before September To transition from a state of peace to a state of war in 1939 and thereby worsen the consequences of the situation. ”The period examined by the court extended from the beginning of the Popular Front government of Blum in 1936 to the Reynaud cabinet in 1940.

The defendants were:

They were imprisoned in Chazeron Castle . Due to the international situation that had changed as a result of the Barbarossa company , Marshal Philippe Pétain decided to accelerate the process. Through the law of January 27, 1941, he created the Conseil de justice politique and, after hearing it, passed the verdict against the first five defendants. There wasn't even a charge against Reynaud and Mandel. All were sentenced to life imprisonment on October 16, 1941 . The Germans found the verdict too mild. Therefore, the German ambassador Otto Abetz forced a new trial, which was scheduled in Riom for February 1942. As the trial turned out to be unfavorable for Vichy and the Nazis due to the defendants' impressive defense speeches, Ernst Woermann reported to Ribbentrop on March 7, 1942 , that Abetz should place the Nazi lawyer Friedrich Grimm at the side of the French , with Daladier and Blum to prevent a victory.

Reynaud and Mandel were extradited to the Germans without trial on November 20, 1942 (a few days after the occupation of southern France ).

Mandel was brought to the Oranienburg concentration camp and handed over to Joseph Darnand's fascist militia on July 4, 1944, who murdered him on July 7, 1944 after the assassination attempt on Philippe Henriot .

Reynaud was transported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp and transferred to Itter Castle near Wörgl in Tyrol on May 11, 1943 (there were also Édouard Daladier , Maurice Gamelin , Léon Jouhaux and other high-ranking French prisoners). In May 1945 those detained there were liberated.

Procedure

The trial began on February 19, 1942, before the Vichy-France Supreme Court. Around 400 witnesses were called, many of them soldiers, who testified about the lack of technical equipment in the armed forces before the German invasion. The Blum government was accused of having reduced France's industrial and defensive capacities with the Accords de Matignon , the labor laws of 1936. The laws dealt with the 40-hour week , vacation pay and the nationalization of defense companies.

Gamelin did not recognize the legality of the court and was silent. Daladier and Blum led the defense. Blum, who was a lawyer himself, cross-examined the government witnesses. He argued that the defense spending reduction began under Pétain as Minister of War and Pierre Laval as Prime Minister. On the other hand, the Popular Front government had made the largest increase in armaments spending since 1918. The defendants also blamed the French General Staff. The Compiègne armistice in 1940 was concluded despite sufficient armed forces in France métropolitaine .

Daladier stated on February 20 that the War Department had not called the loans made available; Pétain himself renounced the fortification of Sedan and spoke out against the continuation of the Maginot Line to the sea. In addition, he had asked for huge sums to further strengthen this line, which were then missing from the other items of the military budget. Pierre Cot , the unindicted air force minister from 1936, declared that he had twice applied for the doubling of the French air force, but had not been approved.

On March 3, Daladier stated that the armaments trust Schneider-Creusot had refused military orders. When Blum attempted nationalization, the Trust threatened to refuse arms contracts if it came to that. Other armaments companies also cut production and laid off workers. One reason for this was, for example, the often insufficient volume of government contracts; the modernization of the factories necessary to meet them would often have been too costly.

On March 15, 1942, Adolf Hitler declared: "What we expect from Riom is an official confirmation of responsibility for the war itself!" On April 14, 1942, the trial was suspended to collect "further information." The German ambassador Otto Abetz informed Laval that the process would have adverse effects and should be abandoned. It was formally terminated on May 21, 1943. Blum and Daladier were taken to the Buchenwald concentration camp and lived there together with other “privileged” prisoners on a special area under slightly better conditions than the other inmates. Daladier was transferred from there to Itter Castle in Tyrol after a month .

media

  • Leon Blum before his judges at the Supreme Court of Riom March 11th and 12th, 1942. Foreword by Clement Attlee . Introduction by Félix Gouin . The Labor Party Book Service, London 1943.
  • Film: Le Procès de Riom. Henri Calef, 1979.
  • Elisabeth Bokelmann: Vichy versus Third Republic. The Riom trial in 1942. Schöningh, Paderborn 2006.

swell

  1. ↑ http://mjp.univ-perp.fr/france/co1940.htm#5 Acte constitutionnel n ° 5 du 30 juillet 1940
  2. ↑ Acte constitutionnel n ° 7 du 27 January 1941
  3. ↑ Woermann's conversation with Darlan and Krug von Nidda ; in Bokelmann, see lit., document, p. 155.Bokelmann does not make it clear that the activities and quotations of Grimm in this matter, which she referred to and presented as facts, and who met with the highest Vichyists (names and functions p. 140), with Pétain himself, among other things, based on an unsecured source, namely an adaptation of Grimm texts by National Socialists in the post-war period. It indicates that Grimm's original diary is in the Federal Archives.
  4. ↑ Stefan Grüner: From dealing with the democratic past. In: Stefan Martens (Ed.): France and Germany at War (November 1942 - autumn 1944); Occupation, collaboration, resistance. Files from the Franco-German Colloquium La France et l'Allemagne en Guerre (November 1942 - Automne 1944), Occupation, Collaboration, Résistance. Paris, March 22nd and 23rd, 1999; organize from the German Historical Institute Paris and the Center d'Etudes d'Histoire de la Défense (Vincennes) in collaboration with the Institute for Contemporary History (Munich) and the Institut d'Histoire du Temps Présent, Paris-Cachan. Edited by Stefan Martens and Maurice Vaï͏sse, Bonn 2000, ISBN 3-416-02908-9 , pp. 88–96.
  5. ^ John M. Sherwood: Georges Mandel and the Third Republic . Stanford University Press, 1970, p. 284
  6. ^ Jean-Louis Crémieux-Brilhac : Ouvriers et soldats - les francais de l'an 40. Vol. 2, Paris 1990, z. BS 50f.
  7. ↑ readable online in internet bookstores