October 15, 1945: Pierre Laval Is Executed

October 15, 1945: Pierre Laval is executed by firing squad at a prison in Fresnes, in the suburbs of Paris, for his collaborations with the Nazis under the Vichy regime. He was 62.

Born on June 28, 1883 in Châteldon, in the French Alps, he became a labor union leader, was elected to France's Chamber of Deputies and then to its Senate during the Third Republic, and was elected Prime Minister in 1931. Later that year, for his efforts at keeping peace between Germany and the rest of Europe, he was given a ticker-tape parade upon his visit to New York City, and Time magazine named him its Man of the Year.

(It's worth noting that the distinction now known as the Time Person of the Year is not an "award" that is "won." It's for the person who, according to the magazine's editors, most affected the news during the year. Wallis Simpson was the 1st woman to receive it, in 1936; Chiang Kai-shek and his wife were the 1st multiple entry, in 1937; Adolf Hitler received it in 1938; Joseph Stalin in 1939 and 1942; John Foster Dulles in 1954; Nikita Khrushchev in 1957; Richard Nixon in 1971, and sharing it with Henry Kissinger in 1972; King Faisal of Saudi Arabia in 1974; Deng Xiaoping in 1978 and 1985; Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979; Ronald Reagan in 1980, and sharing it with Yuri Andropov in 1983; Newt Gingrich in 1995; Bill Clinton had to share it with Kenneth Starr in 1998; Jeff Bezos in 1999; George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004; Rudy Giuliani in 2001; Vladimir Putin in 2007; Mark Zuckerberg in 2010; Donald Trump in 2016; and Elon Musk in 2021.) (UPDATE: It went to Trump again in 2024.)

Laval's government fell after only a year, but he became Foreign Minister in 1934, and returned to the premiership for 6 months in 1935 and 1936. When France fell in 1940, the Nazis offered him its governance, knowing that he had been conservative, and had previously been friendly to Germany in general and to Hitler (and Italy's Benito Mussolini) in particular.

Laval thought that, by accepting, he was helping to protect his country. His country didn’t see it that way, and, after The War, he was found guilty of plotting against the security of the state, and of collaboration with the enemy.

Laval was the head of government for Vichy France. The head of state was Philippe Pétain. The Marshal became known as the Lion of Verdun for his heroic stand against the Kaiser's troops in World War I. His 1914 declaration at the Marne, "They shall not pass!", became a willingness in 1940 to let them pass. When outgoing Prime Minister Paul Reynaud resigned after the fall, he recommended Pétain to the Nazis, as a unifying figure. They accepted, and so did he.

He was 88 years old when France was liberated, and he remains the oldest head of state in France's history, older than any of its monarchs. (Even King Louis XIV was "only" 76.) After the war, the new Fourth Republic convicted him of treason, but sentenced him to life in prison, rather than death, due to his age. He died in 1951. Charles de Gaulle said his remarkable life was "successively banal, then glorious, then deplorable, but never mediocre."

Given that he seemed to have considerably less choice in the matter, history has been kinder to Pétain than it has been to Laval.

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October 15, 1945 was a Monday. The World Series had ended 5 days earlier, when the Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago Cubs in Game 7. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL season didn't start for another 9 days. So there were no scores on this historic day.