21. The Just End of a Traitor
Convinced of ultimate German victory, Pierre Laval eagerly collaborated with the Nazis. During the Vichy Regime, he served as vice president of the Council of Ministers for five months in 1940, until dismissed by Petain, and as head of the Vichy government from 1942 until the liberation of France in 1944. In an infamous 1942 speech, he expressed his desire that Germany win the war. Throughout, he avidly persecuted the French Resistance and rounded up Frenchmen for labor in Germany and the German war effort.
Laval also helped round up and deport French Jews to the concentration and extermination camps. Arrested after the liberation of France, Laval was tried alongside Petain after the war on charges of high treason. The slimy collaborationist tried to justify his treason on grounds that he had France’s best interests in mind all along, but to no avail, and he was convicted and sentenced to death. After a failed suicide attempt by poison, he was executed by firing squad on October, 15th, 1945.