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Philippe PtainMarshal Henri Philippe Ptain (April 24, 1856 - July 23, 1951), generally known as Philippe Ptain or Marshal Ptain, was a French soldier and Head of State of Vichy France. He became a French hero because of his military leadership in World War I, yet he was tried and imprisoned for treason in his old age because of his collaboration with the Germans in World War II. Early life Born in Cauchy--la-Tour (in the Pas-de-Calais dpartement, in the north of France) in 1856. He joined the French Army in 1876 and attended the St Cyr Military Academy and the cole Suprieure de Guerre (army war college) in Paris. World War I Ptain was a distinguished veteran of World War I, and in particular the Battle of Verdun. As a result of his brilliant defence at Verdun, he became known as the "saviour of Verdun" and hailed as a French hero. Verdun became a symbol of French determination, inspired by Ptain’s declaration: "they shall not pass!" Due to his remarkable ability and high prestige, Ptain rose to be Commander-in-Chief of the French army during World War I; it could be argued that because of his successful defensive strategy, France survived the devastation of German invasion, thus led to the Allied victory in World War I. Moreover, it was his advocacy of a defensive strategy that led, in large part, to the construction of the Maginot Line. Between the wars Ptain emerged from the war as a national hero. He was encouraged to go into politics, and although he had little interest in running for an elected position in 1934 he was appointed to the French cabinet as Minister of War. The following year he was promoted to Secretary of State. World War II and Vichy France In the spring of 1940 France was invaded by Nazi Germany. In an emergency session, the Chamber of Deputies appointed Ptain as Prime Minister of France and granted him extraordinary powers. The constitutionality of these actions was later challenged by de Gaulle's regime, but at the time Ptain was widely accepted as France's saviour. On June 22 he signed an armistice with Germany that gave the Nazis control over the north and west of the country, including Paris, but left the rest under an "independent" government that located its capital in the resort town of Vichy. Again the Chamber of Deputies had an emergency meeting, and voted to abolish the constitution of the Third Republic and make Ptain supreme dictator. As Ptain despised the republican form of government, which he considered to be weak and responsible for France's failure in the war, he took "Head of the State" as his only title, and abolished the positions of president and prime minister. As leader of this semi-fascistic regime a personality cult was set up and Ptain's image was spread throughout France, portraying him as a father figure to the nation (le Marchal = "the Marshal"). Conservative factions within his government used the opportunity as an occasion in which to launch an ambitious program known as the "National Revolution" in which much of the former Third Republic's secular traditions were overturned in favor of the promotion of a more traditionalist, Catholic society. Ptain refused the requests by the Germans and his Deputy Pierre Laval to side with the Axis Powers. Ptain also at first resisted pressure to deport large numbers of France's Jews to German concentration camps. He did provide the Axis with large supplies of manufactured goods and foodstuffs, and also encouraged resistance by Vichy troops in France's colonial empire. On 11 November 1942 Germany invaded the unoccupied zone in response to the Allied Operation Torch landings in North Africa. Although Vichy France nominally remained in existence, Ptain became nothing more than a figurehead as the Nazis abandoned the pretense of an independent Vichy government. On September 7, 1944 he and other members of the Vichy cabinet fled to Sigmaringen and soon after he resigned as leader. Post-war trial In April 1945 he returned to France, where he was tried for collaboration (or treason), convicted and sentenced to death by firing squad in July-August 1946. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by Charles de Gaulle on August 17, 1946, on the grounds of his old age. He died in prison on le d'Yeu, an island off the coast of Brittany, in 1951. Nowadays, in France, the word ptainisme suggests an authoritarian and reactionary ideology, a nostalgy of a rural, agricultural, traditionalist, Catholic society. Changes Changes Changes Internal Links Vichy France L'Oral Eugene Schueller Francois Mitterand Petain, Philippe Petain, Philippe Petain, Philippe Petain, Philippe Petain, Philippe Petain, Philippe Petain, Philippe Ptain, Philippe
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