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Ancient History

Operation Nemesis and Other Historic Paybacks

Armenian Genocide - 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide

Pierre Laval on trial for treason after the war. Encyclopedia Britannica

8. Laval Gets His Just Deserts

The collaborationist Laval rounded up Frenchmen for labor in Germany and the German war effort, and assisted in deporting French Jews to the concentration and extermination camps. Arrested by the Free French after the liberation of France, he was tried alongside Petain after the war on charges of high treason.

Laval attempted to justify his treason on grounds that he had France’s best interests in mind all along, but to no avail. He was convicted and sentenced to death. After a failed suicide attempt by poison, he was executed by firing squad on October, 15th, 1945.

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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.

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