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Author : Reynouard Vincent
Title : Acquittal for Philippe Pétain
Year : 2016

Link download : Reynouard_Vincent_-_Acquittal_for_Philippe_Petain.zip

Finally, on November 16, 1945, The Citadelle opens again its doors to welcome the oldest world prisoner, Marshal Petain, 90 years old, former French Chief of State, sentenced to life imprisonment. He stayed in the central building of the fort then, he transferred on June 6, 1951, due to his health, in a particular house of Port-Joinville where he died the following July on the 23rd. I am here today at L'Île-d'Yeu, in front of Marshal Petain's grave. It's not that I have an overflowing sympathy for the character. Personally, I would have preferred that after the defeat France overthrown the alliances declared war to England, and put all his weight on the side of the Third Reich for the victory of Europe. But anyway. The Marshal did what he could. And among all the accusations uttered against that man, there is that of overthrowing the Republic to install, one would say, a kind of dictatorship in France with a unique character, a unique party, and so on. But, this accusation is completely fallacious, it is false. Petain didn't overthrow the Republic. For a very simple reason: is that the Republic, didn't die on July 10, 1940, it didn't die either in the signing of the Armistice. It died on September 3, 1939. When France entered illegally into the war against Germany. And war was declared at the time, I remind you, by the French Republic President, by the government leader, Edouard Daladier, which means that the Republic was raped and killed by the very people who should have been serving it. Let me explain. ...