Pétain and the France of Vichy
D'un chef vieillard naîtra sens hébété
Dégénérant par savoir et par armes:
Le chef de France par sa soeur redouté
Champs divisés, concédés aux gendarmes
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chef vieillard naîtra sens hébété Dégénérant par savoir et par armes par sa soeur redouté Champs divisés Concédés aux gendarmes
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the very old chief. Here, the quatrain seems to fit an old french army chief. Pétain was indeed very old when he took over the government of Vichy at the age of 83. will become numb. One does not necessarily become numb because he is 80, but it is possible that health problems or the stress took a heavy toll on the Marshal. Leading a government may have been too demanding for a man his age and some of his decisions may have suffered from this. degenerating in knowledge and military skills. Pétain's criticism of the armies of 1940 is reminiscent of those soldiers who talk about the past: "In my time things were different..." And it is probably this alternation between the past and the present that brought about the downfall of Pétain. It is of course just an opinion! dreaded by his sister. Here sister is an allegory for England, the sister of France. In previous centuries, England has been led by many monarchs and queens that were of french origin, and there has always been that interaction between the two countries. Therefore, the new government of Vichy collaborating with Germany was enough to put fear in the mind of Churchill in his effort to fight the envader. France was divided: siding with the allies were De Gaulle, his militia, and the Resistants. On the other side were Pétain and the government of collaboration. A new army called the French Militia was formed to establish some order in the process, this meaning, of course, fighting De Gaulle and hunting down the French Resistants who were making havoc of the german forces of occupation throughout France. |
Interprétation
The old Marshal will become confused.
His military skills and knowledge will be diminished....
...Pétain, the chief of France, will be feared by Churchill...
...The new French Militia will then pursue the Resistants.
History
When World War II began, Pétain was already an old man, not quite comfortable in a world that was evolving so quickly. His vision of war was logically centered on what he had seen and experienced in the First World War and he was now a diplomat, not a warrior. It is surprising that he was even called to lead the government of Vichy. At age 83, he should have earned the right to enjoy the last few years of his life in peace.
In September 1939, Pétain had refused to enter Daladier's War Cabinet. In January 1940, he had strongly criticized the organization of the army's Q.G. and it is possible that, being himself a veteran and a hero of the First War, he had become very critical of the new generation of generals and soldiers, In my time things were different... It is also possible that his mind may not have been as keen as it was in his 60s... Now, how come a man of his age and state of mind should find himself at the head of a government in time of war?
In spite of this, on May 18, 1940, Pétain becomes the Council's vice-president. June 17, he calls for an armistice with Germany and he forms a new French State of which he becomes the Chief. (D'un chef vieillard)
On June 16, after the rejection of an offer of French-British union by the Council of Minister of which Pétain was a member, Paul Reynaud is dismissed and Pétain becomes President of the Council. Fearing more and more the new turn of events and the new alliance of Pétain with the Germans (le chef de France par sa soeur redouté), the government of His Majesty recognizes De Gaulle as «the Chief of all free French, wherever they may be, who side with him for the cause of the allies.»
In Vichy, where the new government was installed, things started to go wrong. It is Pétain's antisemitic stand that is the most surprising. As a soldier, he never showed (at least openly, any antisemitist tendencies, and yet, even before receiving a request from the Germans, he signs a law (naitra sens hébété) that will remove the French nationality to undesirable people, infering, of course, the jews. And also, the condemnation to death of Charles de Gaulle, at the time out of the country, did nothing to improve the popularity of Pétain among the French Resistance and the French still faithful to De Gaulle.
As time went by, he must have become more and more unsure and mixed up as to what he really should do. His call to collaboration with Hitler was most certainly unwarranted and the 1943 census of the Jews a very bad move as he could have left this infamy to Hitler himself. He even went as far as congratulating Hitler as the defender of France during the raid of the allies on Dieppe. (Dégénérant par savoir et par armes)
The last infamy occurred when, on January 31, 1943, the government of Vichy inaugurated the French Militia - les gendarmes - in order to oppose the Gaullists, communists and all those who opposed the politics of collaboration with the nazi Germany (Champs divisés, concédés aux gendarmes). France had become a German State. All this and so many wrong moves by someone who was once the pride of France should have given the French an idea of the state of mind of their old Marshal who also had to contend with the pro-German Pierre Laval.
Therefore, it is in a context of uncertainty and fear that Philippe Pétain, collaborator and traitor to his own country, forged his ultimate destiny. It is unthinkable to believe that a man who defended his country during 80 years of his life and received the greatest honors and the highest posts of his country could have suddenly become a voluntary collaborator of the ennemy. It is more logical to finally accept the fact that his mind was somewhat confuse and unable to take things into account in a proper perspective in times of stress and intense activity; that he was, in fact, the scapegoat of all the French that had silently taken sides with the Germans and had finally found, in Pétain, the great responsible of all the crimes they had, themselves, perpetrated.
Nostradamus has foreseen that fate, but he has also seen, in his vision, the debilitating effect of old age on a man who could not cope with the stress and efforts that are required of a leader in times of war.
(All the facts and events above have been gleaned throughout the book, Chronique de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale - Jacques Legrand & Encyclopédie Universelle Illustrée - Georges Pascal)