France on Trial Quotes

“Thus Lebrun had not so much resigned as faded away. The coup d’état of 10 July 1940, if coup d’état it was, could hardly have been a politer affair. As de Gaulle later wrote scathingly of Lebrun in his Memoirs: ‘As Head of State he lacked two things: that he was a Head; and that there was a State.”
― Julian T. Jackson, France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain

“Reynaud ended his testimony with a defence of his former ministers: It is not my intention to condemn them, Messieurs. You need to put yourself back in the atmosphere of the period. These men saw the force of the Germans which seemed irresistible, and then the crowds of unfortunate refugees pouring south with mattresses on their car roofs, towards the Pyrenees … But I will be much more severe about those who told them, because they had the authority to say such things … that in three weeks England would have her throat cut like a chicken. I am more severe about those who weighed in the decision of these ministers, those who corrupted them – Pétain and Weygand.”
― Julian T. Jackson, France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain

“History will one day judge the judges, and will also certainly judge the atmosphere in which his trial has been conducted.”
― Julian T. Jackson, France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain

“One eligible candidate would have been the jurist Léon Lyon-Caen, who had been sacked from the Cour de Cassation under Vichy legislation excluding Jews. Later, he had narrowly escaped arrest by the Gestapo, one of his sons had died at Auschwitz, and two others in the Resistance. Lyon-Caen was readmitted to the Cour de Cassation in 1945, but he refused to be considered for the role of premier président on the grounds that he could not be impartial.”
― Julian T. Jackson, France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain

“He wrote: I would have liked to make the following declaration: ‘Pétain was named head of State by the National Assembly composed of men properly elected by the Nation. The fact of choosing the Jurors among the Resisters and among the 80 parliamentarians who voted against Pétain in 1940 while 800 voted for, will taint the judgement that is made. I am happy to participate in the judgement, I do not want to participate in an assassination.’9”
― Julian T. Jackson, France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain

“More time would be devoted in the trial to this single document than to the fact that in the month it was sent – or not sent – over 11,000 Jewish men, women and children were arrested by French police in the Unoccupied Zone of France for deportation to Auschwitz.”
― Julian T. Jackson, France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain

“most quintessentially ‘French’ region of France, the granitic Auvergne, where the Gauls had held out against the Romans.”
― Julian T. Jackson, France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain

“France’s prime minister during the Great War, who had been dubbed ‘le Père la Victoire’ – Father of Victory.”
― Julian T. Jackson, France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain