Ebook: Pétain

Marshal Pétain remains one of the most divisive political figures in the history of modern France. Born into a peasant family in 1856, he became a soldier. His early military career was undistinguished, but at a critical moment in the First World War he was entrusted with the defence of Verdun. Holding the French lines, from February to December 1916, against a massive German onslaught in which over a million men died, he emerged — and not just in the patriotic rhetoric of the time — as the saviour of his country. He became the French commander-in-chief for the remainder of the war.

Twenty-five years later, at another critical moment in France's history, he offered himself as prime minister, conceded an armistice to the invading Germans, and was appointed head of state of the collaborationist Vichy government (1940-44). Whatever Pétain's motives and expectations, the Vichy regime embarked on a series of repressive policies, culminating in the persecution of the Jews. After the Liberation, Pétain was arrested, tried for treason (1945) and condemned to death, though the sentence was commuted. He died in prison in 1951.

A storm of controversy has obscured his reputation ever since. Was he the traitor: the betrayer of his countrymen, and an active collaborator with the Third Reich? Or were his actions in 1940, however unwise and dangerous, the selfless response of a patriot to the challenge of a country on the verge of total disintegration?

The issue is one of perennial fascination; but, as Nicholas Atkin brings home in this fresh, incisive study, far more rides on Pétain's career than the personal tragedy of a flawed individual, however compelling. In the First World War, Pétain's role, experiences, and limitations helped shape the state in which France emerged from the conflict, and how she responded to it. That in turn shaped her ability to prepare for the Second. Pétain's period as war minister in 1934, and his sponsorship of the ineffectual Maginot Line defence system, themselves helped precipitate the disaster of 1940.

In analysing Pétain's journey from Verdun to Vichy, Dr. Atkin in fact finds little that is contradictory in his actions and attitudes. This is, rather, the story of a very ordinary man caught up in extraordinary circumstances. Not gifted with imagination, vision, or self-knowledge, he was woefully ill-equipped to deal with the responsibilities and choices that accompanied his mythic status after 1918. But there is far more to this book than its central figure. In illuminating him, it also illuminates the divisions and uncertainties of France herself in these troubled years. Among the topics it explores are the role of the army in French politics; the character of the French right; the political make-up of Vichy regime; and the very nature of resistance, patriotism, and collaboration.