# Did any polititian in Vichy France goi on to have a political career in post WWII France? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 27, 2019, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-polititian-in-vichy-france-goi-on-to-have-a-political-career-in-post-wwii-france/842547 "2019-10-27T10:55:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Calavera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calavera/32/70_2.png) [@Calavera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calavera)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2019, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-polititian-in-vichy-france-goi-on-to-have-a-political-career-in-post-wwii-france/842547/1 "2019-10-27T10:55:48Z")
Did anybody in the Vichy France administration manage to have a political career after WW2? ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2019, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-polititian-in-vichy-france-goi-on-to-have-a-political-career-in-post-wwii-france/842547/2 "2019-10-27T12:13:15Z")
Francois Mitterand ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2019, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-polititian-in-vichy-france-goi-on-to-have-a-political-career-in-post-wwii-france/842547/3 "2019-10-27T12:23:07Z")
Not a robust one, but here’s a little bit of what what Wiki says about [René Bousquet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Bousquet) > [@](#): > > René Bousquet (French: [ʁəne buske]; 11 May 1909 – 8 June 1993) was a high-ranking French political appointee who served as secretary general to the Vichy regime police from May 1942 to 31 December 1943. For personal heroism, he had become a protégé of prominent officials before the war and rose rapidly in the government. > > In 1949, he was automatically convicted as a Vichy official and sentenced to five years of Indignité nationale, but his sentence was reduced due to beliefs that he also aided the Resistance and attempted to preserve some autonomy for French police during the Nazi Occupation. Excluded from the government, he went into business. After receiving amnesty in 1959, Bousquet became active again in politics, supporting left-wing politicians through the 1970s, and becoming a regular visitor of François Mitterrand after his election as president in the 1980s. > > In 1989, after years of increasing accusations about his activities during the war, Bousquet was accused by three groups of crimes against humanity. He was ultimately indicted by the French Ministry of Justice in 1991 for his decisions during the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup in 1942, which led to Jewish children being deported and killed in German Nazi extermination camps in Eastern Europe. Bousquet was assassinated in 1993 by Christian Didier shortly before his trial was to begin. Marshal Pétain and Pierre Laval, the Prime Ministers of record, were both tried and convicted after the war. Laval was executed by firing squad in 1945; Pétain was spared execution (he was a respected veteran of World War I) but died within five years. If any politicians continued in public service, it had to be at the local level. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2019, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-polititian-in-vichy-france-goi-on-to-have-a-political-career-in-post-wwii-france/842547/4 "2019-10-27T12:53:28Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > Francois Mitterand This is, at best, a partial answer. Yes, Mitterand did work for the Vichy government during part of WWII. But there’s also very good information that he was working for the resistance while he was doing so and, when placed in a position where he would be directly working for a collaborator, left his position for another one. By mid-1943 he was a full member of the resistance and on one occasion was specifically - under his code name - targeted for arrest by the Security Service of the SS. > **[François Mitterrand | Work in France under the Vichy administration: 1941–1943](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Mitterrand#Work_in_France_under_the_Vichy_administration:_1941%E2%80%931943)** > > Mitterrand worked from January to April 1942 for the Légion française des combattants et des volontaires de la révolution nationale (Legion of French combatants and volunteers of the national revolution) as a civil servant on a temporary contract. François Mitterrand worked under Jean-Paul Favre de Thierrens who was a spy for the British secret service. He then moved to the Commissariat au reclassement des prisonniers de guerre (Service for the Reorientation of POWs). During this period, François... ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2019, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-polititian-in-vichy-france-goi-on-to-have-a-political-career-in-post-wwii-france/842547/5 "2019-10-27T14:11:35Z")
Mitterand and Bousquet were officials under the Vichy régime, rather than politicians, as was [Maurice Papon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Papon). You’ll need French, but here’s [Wikipedia’s list of Vichy ministers](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%C3%A9gorie:Ministre_du_R%C3%A9gime_de_Vichy); I don’t think any of them came to any prominence in postwar politics, either because they’d been condemned to one or another punishment after the Liberation, or because they’d gone into exile, or were just too old. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2019, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-polititian-in-vichy-france-goi-on-to-have-a-political-career-in-post-wwii-france/842547/6 "2019-10-27T14:22:39Z")
> [@](#): > > An estimated 6,000 executions were carried out before France was liberated, and another 4,000 occurred after the country was freed. The pursuits were carried out by both individuals and organizations. Nazi-hunting groups were established, tasked with gathering information and tracking down the suspected Nazi supporters. Civilians helped the authorities by providing information about suspects they had seen and recognized. Many women who were suspected of having romantic relations with German soldiers, or were prostitutes that provided their services to the enemy, were punished and humiliated by having their heads shaved publicly. People who profited during the war were executed as well. The French members of the Waffen-SS who managed to survive the war were also treated as traitors. The higher-ranking officers were executed, and the lesser officers were sent to prison or given the opportunity to join the Foreign Legion. > > The unauthorized executions continued until the Provisional Government established order, bringing the suspected collaborators before the courts. Some were given amnesty, while some were even rewarded with important positions in the new government. One example is Maurice Papon, who was accused of crimes against humanity and participated actively in the deportation of over 1,600 Jews during World War II. He was later appointed to several important positions under the leadership of Charles de Gaulle and the Fifth Republic. The most eminent Nazi supporters, Laval and Pétain, were sentenced to death. Laval was executed after his trial, but Pétain’s sentence was lessened to life imprisonment instead of execution by firing squad. > **[How France dealt with those who collaborated with the Nazis after war's end |...](https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/06/02/how-france-dealt-with-those-who-collaborated-with-the-nazis-after-wars-end/)** > > France declared war on Germany on Sept. 3, 1939, becoming one of the first countries, along with Great Britain, to stand up to the Nazi regime. The ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2019, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-polititian-in-vichy-france-goi-on-to-have-a-political-career-in-post-wwii-france/842547/7 "2019-10-27T14:47:07Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > This is, at best, a partial answer. I suppose it didn’t exactly answer the question posed in the thread title, but it did answer the question posed in body of the OP. Wish I’d thought of looking at wikipedia, dammit. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2019, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-polititian-in-vichy-france-goi-on-to-have-a-political-career-in-post-wwii-france/842547/8 "2019-10-27T19:38:06Z")
I love the idea of a punishment named “Indignité nationale.” It’s so Gallic and dismissive. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2019, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-polititian-in-vichy-france-goi-on-to-have-a-political-career-in-post-wwii-france/842547/9 "2019-10-27T20:40:23Z")
[Indignité nationale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indignit%C3%A9_nationale) (French “national unworthiness”) was the offense. [Dégradation nationale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9gradation_nationale) (“National stripping of rank”) was the penalty. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2019, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-polititian-in-vichy-france-goi-on-to-have-a-political-career-in-post-wwii-france/842547/10 "2019-10-27T22:20:10Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I love the idea of a punishment named “Indignité nationale.” > > It’s so Gallic and dismissive. I prefer the Roman original : _damnatio memoriae_, “cursed memory”. Your name stricken from all records, histories and stellae ; any statues or monument or item bearing your likeness destroyed, and anybody uttering your name or mentioning your existence from then on earns a reprimand at minima. A narcissist’s worse-than-Hell. ---
**Author:** ![SOJA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@SOJA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SOJA)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2019, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-polititian-in-vichy-france-goi-on-to-have-a-political-career-in-post-wwii-france/842547/11 "2019-10-27T22:26:25Z")
IIRC the internal French intelligence services also up until maybe the 1980s would routinely dig into people’s backgrounds, people who held office but were nobodies during the war, to see whether they were collaborators or not. I’ve only seen this mentioned twice in books so I’m not sure how concrete the info is. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-polititian-in-vichy-france-goi-on-to-have-a-political-career-in-post-wwii-france/842547/12 "2019-10-28T06:02:02Z")
If so, it didn’t stop the rise of someone like Papon. Maybe it was a response to that: or maybe a way for those in charge to have something over political rivals. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-polititian-in-vichy-france-goi-on-to-have-a-political-career-in-post-wwii-france/842547/13 "2019-10-28T06:41:13Z")
> [@SOJA](#): > > IIRC the internal French intelligence services also up until maybe the 1980s would routinely dig into people’s backgrounds, people who held office but were nobodies during the war, to see whether they were collaborators or not. I’ve only seen this mentioned twice in books so I’m not sure how concrete the info is. If so, that might have been to have some dirt on them if need be I guess. But while I don’t think any high-level Vichy administrators had any further career due to their visibility during the Occupation ; plenty of more obscure collabos kept doing the same job(s) be it in the police forces, army or administration. For example, [Raymond Marcellin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Marcellin) worked in the Vichy administration with great enthusiasm - got medals, even - then went on to become De Gaulle’s (then Pompidou’s) minister of the interior in the late sixties and organized the state’s repression of the events of May 68. He had another ministerial appointment after that, and ended his career as \*député \*(~= House rep) for Morbihan for a number of terms. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-polititian-in-vichy-france-goi-on-to-have-a-political-career-in-post-wwii-france/842547/14 "2019-10-28T07:46:10Z")
Wasn’t Mitterrand a POW? ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-polititian-in-vichy-france-goi-on-to-have-a-political-career-in-post-wwii-france/842547/15 "2019-10-28T07:59:52Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Wasn’t Mitterrand a POW? He was, but he escaped in December 1941 and made his way to the unoccupied zone of France, where he took a position in the Vichy administration assisting in the settlement of other POWs who returned to France (mostly in more conventional circumstances). [The Vichy administration did not encourage French POWs to escape from German custody but, any that did, it wasn’t about to hand them back.]