ABSTRACT
Marshal Petain and Pierre Laval travelled to the remote French village of Montoire to meet Hitler in his railway car. Hitler wanted French backing in his continuing war with Great Britain and its empire; the French sought amelioration of the harsh terms of the Armistice. Collaboration was hardly thrust upon a recalcitrant and unwilling public by Petain and Laval. Pierre Laval joined the Petain government in June 1940 as one of two Vice Premiers and as Petain's designated successor. Laval returned to the Vichy government in April 1942, having had no part in the development of collaboration in the interim. Laval's collaboration with the German occupiers and his relationship with Petain were often mentioned in court – Mongibeaux referred to these subjects in his rambling discourses – but Mornet made no effort to lay out a considered case of crime based upon them. Laval discussed collaboration in greater detail during his jailhouse conversations with Yves Frederic Jaffre.
