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A Disturbing Compilation of the Slimiest People in History

Khalid Elhassan April 26, 2022 37 min

21. The Just End of a Traitor

Slimy Facts - Pierre Laval, left, smoking a cigarette, with SS Obergruppenfuhrer Carl Oberg, head of the German police in France — Pierre Laval, left, smoking a cigarette, with SS Obergruppenfuhrer Carl Oberg, head of the German police in France. Wikimedia

Convinced of ultimate German victory, Pierre Laval eagerly collaborated with the Nazis. During the Vichy Regime, he served as vice president of the Council of Ministers for five months in 1940, until dismissed by Petain, and as head of the Vichy government from 1942 until the liberation of France in 1944. In an infamous 1942 speech, he expressed his desire that Germany win the war. Throughout, he avidly persecuted the French Resistance and rounded up Frenchmen for labor in Germany and the German war effort.

Laval also helped round up and deport French Jews to the concentration and extermination camps. Arrested after the liberation of France, Laval was tried alongside Petain after the war on charges of high treason. The slimy collaborationist tried to justify his treason on grounds that he had France’s best interests in mind all along, but to no avail, and he was convicted and sentenced to death. After a failed suicide attempt by poison, he was executed by firing squad on October, 15^th, 1945.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.