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The Riom Trial ((フランス語:Procès de Riom); 19 February 1942 – 21 May 1943) was an attempt by the Vichy France regime, headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain, to prove that the leaders of the French Third Republic (1870–1940) had been responsible for France's defeat by Germany in 1940. The trial was held in the city of Riom in central France, and had mainly political aims – namely to project the responsibility of defeat onto the leaders of the left-wing Popular Front government that had been elected 3 May 1936.〔also see List of Prime Ministers of France#French Third Republic (1870–1940)〕 The Supreme Court of Justice ('Cour suprême de justice'), created by a decree issued by Pétain on 30 July 1940,〔(Acte constitutionnel n°5 du 30 juillet 1940 )〕 was empowered to "''judge whether the former ministers, or their immediate subordinates, had betrayed the duties of their offices by way of acts which contributed to the transition from a state of peace to a state of war before September 1939, and which after that date worsened the consequences of the situation thus created.''" The period examined by the court was from 1936 (the beginning of the Popular Front administration, under Léon Blum) to 1940 and Paul Reynaud's cabinet. The trial, supported by the Nazis, had the secondary aim of demonstrating that the responsibility of the war rested with France (which had officially declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, two days after the invasion of Poland) and not with Adolf Hitler and his policies. Once started in February 1942, the trial did not go according to plan. The defendants were largely successful in rebutting the charges, and won sympathetic coverage in the international press. The trial was eventually suspended in March 1942, and formally abandoned in May 1943. ==Context== The defendants at the Riom Trial were: *Léon Blum ( * 1872), leader of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) socialist party and a two-time Prime Minister of France (4 June 1936 to 22 June 1937 and 13 March 1938 to 10 April 1938) during the rule of the left-wing coalition Popular Front. As a Jew, Blum was a target of particular hatred for the Vichy regime and the Nazis, and he was widely seen as the principal defendant in the trial. *Édouard Daladier ( * 1884), Prime Minister of France from 10 April 1938 to 21 March 1940, former member of the Radical-Socialist Party. He was among the 27 French deputies and senators who had fled Metropolitan France on 21 June 1940 from Bordeaux on board the ship ''Massilia'', a month before the vote on constitutional changes that dissolved the Third Republic and gave extraordinary powers to Pétain. Daladier was arrested on his arrival in Vichy-governed French Morocco on 8 August 1940. *Paul Reynaud ( * 1878), Prime Minister in 1940 (21 March – 16 June), and vice-president of the Democratic Republican Alliance (ARD) centre-right party. *Georges Mandel ( * 1885), former Interior Minister (May–June 1940), who was also Jewish. Mandel was with Daladier on board the ''Massilia'', and was likewise arrested in Morocco. *Maurice Gamelin ( * 1872), former commander-in-chief of the French Army during the May–June 1940 Battle of France *Guy La Chambre (1898), former Minister for the French Air Force *Robert Jacomet, former Controller-General of Army Administration More than 400 witnesses were called, many of them soldiers who were supposed to testify that the French army was not adequately equipped to resist the Wehrmacht invasion of May/June 1940. It was alleged that Blum's legislation, enacted after the 1936 Matignon Agreements which had introduced the 40-hour working week and paid leave for workers and had nationalised some businesses, had undermined France's industrial and defence capabilities. The left-wing Popular Front government was also held to have been weak in suppressing "subversive elements and revolutionists." Because of the international context, including the June 1941 invasion of the USSR, and deterioration of popular support for Vichy regime, Marshal Philippe Pétain decided to speed up the process. He thus announced on the radio, prior to the beginning of the trial, that he would himself condemn the guilty parties after having heard the advice of the Political Justice Council (''Conseil de justice politique'') which he had set up. Pétain was entitled to such an act after the Constitutional decree of 27 January 1941.〔(Acte constitutionnel n°7 du 27 janvier 1941 )〕 The newly created Political Justice Council handed in its conclusions on 16 October 1941. Pétain then decided to withdraw the charges against Reynaud and Mandel, without explanation, although both were kept in prison and handed over to the Germans – and Mandel was later executed by Vichy regime's Milice. The other five other defendants were detained. After Marshal Pétain's condemnation of the political responsibles, the Riom Trial was supposed to try the men as citizens. Although the president of the court, Pierre Caous, declared at the outset that the trial was not to be a political one, it was widely seen as a show trial, in France and abroad. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Riom Trial」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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