Riom Trial
Encyclopedia
The Riom Trial was an attempt by the Vichy France
regime, headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain
, to prove that the leaders of the French Third Republic
(1870-1940) had been responsible for France's defeat
by Germany in 1940. The trial was held in the city of Riom
, and had mainly political aims, namely to project the responsibility of defeat on the leaders of the Popular Front
government that had been elected in 1936.
The Supreme Court of Justice, created by a 30 July 1940 decree
, was empowered by a decree of the Vichy regime "to judge whether the former ministers or their immediate subordinates had betrayed the duties of their offices by way of acts which contributed to the transition from a state of peace to a state of war before September 1939, and which after that date worsened the consequences of the situation thus created." The period examined by the Court went from 1936 (the beginning of the Popular Front administration, under Léon Blum
) to Paul Reynaud
's 1940 cabinet. The trial, supported by the Nazis
, had the secondary aim of demonstrating that the responsibility of the war rested with France (which had officially declared war on Germany
on 3 September 1939, two days after the invasion of Poland) and not on Adolf Hitler
's policies.
The trial did not go according to plan. The defendants were largely successful in rebutting the charges, and won sympathetic coverage in the international press. The trial was suspended in March 1942, and formally abandoned in May 1943.
More than 400 witnesses were called, many of them soldiers who were supposed to testify that the Army was not adequately equipped to resist the German invasion of May 1940. It was alleged that Blum's legislation, enacted after the 1936 Matignon Accords
, which had introduced the 40-hour working week and paid leave
for workers and had nationalised some businesses, had undermined France's industrial and defence capacities. The Popular Front government was also held to have been weak in suppressing "subversive elements and revolutionists."
Because of the international context, including the June 1941 invasion of the USSR
, and deterioration of popular support for Vichy, Marshal Philippe Pétain
decided to speed up the process. He thus announced to the radio, before the opening of the trial, that he would himself condemn the guilty parties after having heard the advice of the Conseil de justice politique (Political Justice Council) which he had set up. Pétain was entitled to such an act after the Constitutional decree-act of 27 January 1941 ). The newly created Conseil de justice politique handed on its conclusions on October 16, 1941. Pétain then decided to withdraw the charges against Reynaud and Mandel, without explanation (both were kept in prison and handed over to the Germans, and Mandel was later murdered by French fascists), while the five other defendants were detained. After Marshal Pétain's condemnation of the political responsibles, the Riom Trial was supposed to judge the men as citizens
. The President of the Court, Pierre Caous declared at the outset that the trial was not a political one, but it was widely seen as a political show trial
, both in France and internationally.
forbidding retroactivity of laws.
Gamelin, the former commander of the French Army, refused to recognise the right of the court to try him and maintained complete silence. La Chambre and Jacomet were minor figures. Daladier and Blum were thus left to carry the burden of the defence. Blum, who was a lawyer as well as a politician and polemicist, turned on what was widely recognised as a brilliant performance, cross-examining the government's witnesses and exposing the falsity and illegitimacy of the charges. He argued that the largest reductions in defence spending under the Third Republic had taken place under governments in which both Pétain and Pierre Laval
, the Vichy Prime Minister, had held office. On the other hand, he showed that the Popular Front had made the greatest war efforts since 1918. Blum even defended the French Communist Party
(PCF), declaring about Jean-Pierre Timbaud
, a Communist who had been executed, along with 26 other communist hostages, in retaliation for the assassination of a Nazi official: "I was often opposed to him. However, he has been executed by a firing-squad and died singing the Marseillaise... Thus, I have nothing to add concerning the PCF."
Although the court was supposed to consider only the period from 1936 to 1940, excluding military operations from September 1939 to June 1940
, the defendants refused to accept this and demonstrated how the responsibility of the defeat of 1940 rested mainly on failures of the French general staff
. They also showed that the June 1940 armistice
had been signed although the French Army still possessed considerable forces in metropolitan France
.
sent Blum a telegram on his birthday in 1942, and on 7 December 1942, The New York Times
published an article titled "For Léon Blum". The state-controlled press in France, however, reported the opening of the trial with great fanfare, but thereafter reported less and less of the proceedings, as most of them were unfavourable to the regime.
By April the Germans were increasingly exasperated by what they saw as the incompetent conduct of the trial. Hitler declared on 15 March 1942: "What we were expecting from Riom is an official stance on the responsibility for the war itself!", and decided that the trial should be stopped in order to avoid further disappointment. The German Ambassador, Otto Abetz
, on orders from Germany, told Laval that the trial was having harmful effects and should be abandoned.
On 14 April 1942 the trial was thus suspended, allegedly so that "additional information" could be obtained. It was formally ended on 21 May 1943. Blum and Daladier were later deported to Germany and kept in Buchenwald concentration camp
, where they remained until the end of the war when they were liberated by Allied forces.
(published in Le Monde
on 17 February 1992)
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
regime, headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain
Philippe Pétain
Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain , generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain , was a French general who reached the distinction of Marshal of France, and was later Chief of State of Vichy France , from 1940 to 1944...
, to prove that the leaders of the French Third Republic
French Third Republic
The French Third Republic was the republican government of France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed due to the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, to 1940, when France was overrun by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in the German and Italian occupations of France...
(1870-1940) had been responsible for France's defeat
Battle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
by Germany in 1940. The trial was held in the city of Riom
Riom
Riom is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.-History:Until the French Revolution, Riom was the capital of the province of Auvergne, and the seat of the dukes of Auvergne. The city was of Gaulish origin, the Roman Ricomagus...
, and had mainly political aims, namely to project the responsibility of defeat on the leaders of the Popular Front
Popular Front (France)
The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period...
government that had been elected in 1936.
The Supreme Court of Justice, created by a 30 July 1940 decree
Decree
A decree is a rule of law issued by a head of state , according to certain procedures . It has the force of law...
, was empowered by a decree of the Vichy regime "to judge whether the former ministers or their immediate subordinates had betrayed the duties of their offices by way of acts which contributed to the transition from a state of peace to a state of war before September 1939, and which after that date worsened the consequences of the situation thus created." The period examined by the Court went from 1936 (the beginning of the Popular Front administration, under Léon Blum
Léon Blum
André Léon Blum was a French politician, usually identified with the moderate left, and three times the Prime Minister of France.-First political experiences:...
) to Paul Reynaud
Paul Reynaud
Paul Reynaud was a French politician and lawyer prominent in the interwar period, noted for his stances on economic liberalism and militant opposition to Germany. He was the penultimate Prime Minister of the Third Republic and vice-president of the Democratic Republican Alliance center-right...
's 1940 cabinet. The trial, supported by the Nazis
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, had the secondary aim of demonstrating that the responsibility of the war rested with France (which had officially declared war on Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
on 3 September 1939, two days after the invasion of Poland) and not on Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's policies.
The trial did not go according to plan. The defendants were largely successful in rebutting the charges, and won sympathetic coverage in the international press. The trial was suspended in March 1942, and formally abandoned in May 1943.
A political trial: judging the Third Republic and the Popular Front
The defendants at the Riom Trial were:- Léon BlumLéon BlumAndré Léon Blum was a French politician, usually identified with the moderate left, and three times the Prime Minister of France.-First political experiences:...
, leader of the SFIO socialist partySection française de l'Internationale ouvrièreThe French Section of the Workers' International , founded in 1905, was a French socialist political party, designed as the local section of the Second International...
and twice Prime MinisterPrime Minister of FranceThe Prime Minister of France in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. The head of state is the President of the French Republic...
between 1936 and 1938 under the Popular FrontPopular Front (France)The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period...
. As a Jew, Blum was an object of particular hatred to the Vichy regime and the Nazis, and he was widely seen as the principal defendant. - Édouard DaladierÉdouard DaladierÉdouard Daladier was a French Radical politician and the Prime Minister of France at the start of the Second World War.-Career:Daladier was born in Carpentras, Vaucluse. Later, he would become known to many as "the bull of Vaucluse" because of his thick neck and large shoulders and determined...
, Prime Minister from 1938 to early 1940, former Radical-SocialistRadical-Socialist Party (France)The Radical Party , is a liberal and centrist political party in France. The Radicals are currently the fourth-largest party in the National Assembly, with 21 seats...
. He fled France aboard the Massilia in June 1940, a month before the vote of extraordinary powers to Pétain (refused only by "the Vichy 80The Vichy 80The Vichy 80 were a group of elected French parliamentarians who, on 10 July 1940, voted against the constitutional change that dissolved the Third Republic and established an authoritarian regime known as Vichy France....
"); was arrested on his arrival (in Vichy-governed Morocco) on 8 August. - Paul ReynaudPaul ReynaudPaul Reynaud was a French politician and lawyer prominent in the interwar period, noted for his stances on economic liberalism and militant opposition to Germany. He was the penultimate Prime Minister of the Third Republic and vice-president of the Democratic Republican Alliance center-right...
, Prime Minister in 1940 (and vice-president of the Alliance démocratiqueDemocratic Republican AllianceThe Democratic Republican Alliance was a French political party created in 1901 by followers of Léon Gambetta, such as Raymond Poincaré who would be president of the Council in the 1920s...
center-right party) - Georges MandelGeorges MandelGeorges Mandel was a French politician, journalist, and French Resistance leader.-Biography:Born Louis George Rothschild in Chatou, Yvelines, was the son of a tailor...
, former Interior Minister, also Jewish (conservativeConservatismConservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
). With Daladier aboard the Massilia, he was likewise arrested. - Maurice GamelinMaurice GamelinMaurice Gustave Gamelin was a French general. Gamelin is best remembered for his unsuccessful command of the French military in 1940 during the Battle of France and his steadfast defense of republican values....
, former commander of the French ArmyFrench ArmyThe French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in... - Guy La ChambreGuy La ChambreGuy La Chambre was a French politician.He was born in Paris on 5 June 1898 into a prosperous family with roots in Brittany. His father, Charles La Chambre served in the Chamber of Deputies representing Ille-et-Vilaine from 1902 to 1906, and Guy's grandfather Charles-Emile also served in that...
, former Minister for the French Air ForceFrench Air ForceThe French Air Force , literally Army of the Air) is the air force of the French Armed Forces. It was formed in 1909 as the Service Aéronautique, a service arm of the French Army, then was made an independent military arm in 1933... - Robert Jacomet, former Controller-General of the Army Administration
More than 400 witnesses were called, many of them soldiers who were supposed to testify that the Army was not adequately equipped to resist the German invasion of May 1940. It was alleged that Blum's legislation, enacted after the 1936 Matignon Accords
Matignon Accords (1936)
The Matignon Agreements were signed on June 7, 1936, at one o'clock in the morning, between the CGPF employers trade union confederation, the CGT trade union and the French state...
, which had introduced the 40-hour working week and paid leave
Holiday
A Holiday is a day designated as having special significance for which individuals, a government, or a religious group have deemed that observance is warranted. It is generally an official or unofficial observance of religious, national, or cultural significance, often accompanied by celebrations...
for workers and had nationalised some businesses, had undermined France's industrial and defence capacities. The Popular Front government was also held to have been weak in suppressing "subversive elements and revolutionists."
Because of the international context, including the June 1941 invasion of the USSR
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
, and deterioration of popular support for Vichy, Marshal Philippe Pétain
Philippe Pétain
Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain , generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain , was a French general who reached the distinction of Marshal of France, and was later Chief of State of Vichy France , from 1940 to 1944...
decided to speed up the process. He thus announced to the radio, before the opening of the trial, that he would himself condemn the guilty parties after having heard the advice of the Conseil de justice politique (Political Justice Council) which he had set up. Pétain was entitled to such an act after the Constitutional decree-act of 27 January 1941 ). The newly created Conseil de justice politique handed on its conclusions on October 16, 1941. Pétain then decided to withdraw the charges against Reynaud and Mandel, without explanation (both were kept in prison and handed over to the Germans, and Mandel was later murdered by French fascists), while the five other defendants were detained. After Marshal Pétain's condemnation of the political responsibles, the Riom Trial was supposed to judge the men as citizens
Citizenship
Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
. The President of the Court, Pierre Caous declared at the outset that the trial was not a political one, but it was widely seen as a political show trial
Show trial
The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly public trial in which there is a strong connotation that the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal to present the accusation and the verdict to the public as...
, both in France and internationally.
Opening of the trial in February 1942
The trial began on 19 February 1942 before the Vichy regime Supreme Court of Justice, which was empowered by a decree "to judge whether the former ministers or their immediate subordinates had betrayed the duties of their offices by way of acts which contributed to the transition from a state of peace to a state of war before September 1939, and which after that date worsened the consequences of the situation thus created." The crimes with which the defendants were charged were retrospectively created: that is, at the time these acts were allegedly carried out, they were not illegal. This was contrary to the principle of Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenaliNullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali
Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali is a basic maxim in continental European legal thinking...
forbidding retroactivity of laws.
Gamelin, the former commander of the French Army, refused to recognise the right of the court to try him and maintained complete silence. La Chambre and Jacomet were minor figures. Daladier and Blum were thus left to carry the burden of the defence. Blum, who was a lawyer as well as a politician and polemicist, turned on what was widely recognised as a brilliant performance, cross-examining the government's witnesses and exposing the falsity and illegitimacy of the charges. He argued that the largest reductions in defence spending under the Third Republic had taken place under governments in which both Pétain and Pierre Laval
Pierre Laval
Pierre Laval was a French politician. He was four times President of the council of ministers of the Third Republic, twice consecutively. Following France's Armistice with Germany in 1940, he served twice in the Vichy Regime as head of government, signing orders permitting the deportation of...
, the Vichy Prime Minister, had held office. On the other hand, he showed that the Popular Front had made the greatest war efforts since 1918. Blum even defended the French Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
(PCF), declaring about Jean-Pierre Timbaud
Jean-Pierre Timbaud
Jean-Pierre Timbaud was the secretary of the steelworkers’ trade union section of the Confédération Générale du Travail . He took part in the strikes which preceded the Popular Front...
, a Communist who had been executed, along with 26 other communist hostages, in retaliation for the assassination of a Nazi official: "I was often opposed to him. However, he has been executed by a firing-squad and died singing the Marseillaise... Thus, I have nothing to add concerning the PCF."
Although the court was supposed to consider only the period from 1936 to 1940, excluding military operations from September 1939 to June 1940
Military history of France during World War II
The military history of France during World War II covers the period from 1939 until 1940, which witnessed French military participation under the French Third Republic , and the period from 1940 until 1945, which was marked by mainland and overseas military administration and influence struggles...
, the defendants refused to accept this and demonstrated how the responsibility of the defeat of 1940 rested mainly on failures of the French general staff
General Staff
A military staff, often referred to as General Staff, Army Staff, Navy Staff or Air Staff within the individual services, is a group of officers and enlisted personnel that provides a bi-directional flow of information between a commanding officer and subordinate military units...
. They also showed that the June 1940 armistice
Armistice with France (Second Compiègne)
The Second Armistice at Compiègne was signed at 18:50 on 22 June 1940 near Compiègne, in the department of Oise, between Nazi Germany and France...
had been signed although the French Army still possessed considerable forces in metropolitan France
Metropolitan France
Metropolitan France is the part of France located in Europe. It can also be described as mainland France or as the French mainland and the island of Corsica...
.
The press and the April 1942 suspension and May 1943 ending of the trial
Journalists from neutral countries were allowed to cover the trial, and their reports praised the conduct of the defendants, particularly Blum, and condemned the basis of the trial, although they conceded that Caous conducted the trial itself fairly. This generated sympathy for the defendants in many countries: Eleanor RooseveltEleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...
sent Blum a telegram on his birthday in 1942, and on 7 December 1942, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
published an article titled "For Léon Blum". The state-controlled press in France, however, reported the opening of the trial with great fanfare, but thereafter reported less and less of the proceedings, as most of them were unfavourable to the regime.
By April the Germans were increasingly exasperated by what they saw as the incompetent conduct of the trial. Hitler declared on 15 March 1942: "What we were expecting from Riom is an official stance on the responsibility for the war itself!", and decided that the trial should be stopped in order to avoid further disappointment. The German Ambassador, Otto Abetz
Otto Abetz
Dr. Heinrich Otto Abetz was the German ambassador to Vichy France during World War II.-Early years:Abetz was born in Schwetzingen on May 26, 1903. He was the son of an estate manager, who died when Otto was only 13...
, on orders from Germany, told Laval that the trial was having harmful effects and should be abandoned.
On 14 April 1942 the trial was thus suspended, allegedly so that "additional information" could be obtained. It was formally ended on 21 May 1943. Blum and Daladier were later deported to Germany and kept in Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald concentration camp was a German Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937, one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps on German soil.Camp prisoners from all over Europe and Russia—Jews, non-Jewish Poles and Slovenes,...
, where they remained until the end of the war when they were liberated by Allied forces.
See also
- Vichy FranceVichy FranceVichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
and The Vichy 80The Vichy 80The Vichy 80 were a group of elected French parliamentarians who, on 10 July 1940, voted against the constitutional change that dissolved the Third Republic and established an authoritarian regime known as Vichy France....
(who refused the extraordinary powers vote) - 1940 Battle of FranceBattle of FranceIn the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
- Marc BlochMarc BlochMarc Léopold Benjamin Bloch was a French historian who cofounded the highly influential Annales School of French social history. Bloch was a quintessential modernist. An assimilated Alsatian Jew from an academic family in Paris, he was deeply affected in his youth by the Dreyfus Affair...
's 1940 explanation of the causes of the Etrange Défaite (Strange Defeat) - Front PopulairePopular Front (France)The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period...
External links
"Il y a cinquante ans le procès de Riom", by Jean-Pierre AzémaJean-Pierre Azéma
-Early life:Azéma is the son of the Réunionese poet Jean-Henri Azéma. Jean-Henri was a collaborator with the black-shirted Milice during the occupation of France, and lived in exile in South America after the war.-Career:...
(published in Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
on 17 February 1992)