"Disposing of the lie" about Marshal Pétain

Keswick Country House Hotel, English Lake District
[WW2 home of the evacuated Roedean Girls School]
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At the end of WW2, the provisional French Government, headed by Charles de Gaulle, put Marshal Philippe Pétain (Chief of the French State 11 July 1940 - 20 August 1944) on trial. Marshal Pétain also signed the 1940 Armistice with Germany, rejected by General de Gaulle and the Free French. The trial took place France between 23 July and 15 August 1945.

Was Pétain culpable of signing the Armistice prematurely? Should France have continued the fight? These were two of the questions that were considered, not just in the French High Court but by French men and women in France and by those living outside of France.

One French woman with an opinion on these matters who was living in Britain was Dr. Aline Lion. She was working as a French teacher at Roedean Girls School which had been evacuated to the Keswick Hotel in the English Lake District (seen in the above photograph). Dr Lion even sent a telegram giving a witness statement in support of Marshal  Pétain which was read out in the High Court.

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