Page 39 - The Kellner Affair Sample Pages

THE KELLNER AFFAIR: MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH
In the beginning of April 1945, legal proceedings in absentia were instigated in France against Pétain. The Maréchal learned about it on the radio, and on April 5, he wrote a note to Hitler and von Ribbentrop demanding that he be allowed to return to France to face his accusers. There was no reply from either. Hitler’s health was failing, and he was locked in the Führerbunker in Berlin, only leaving it for short periods to take walks in the unharmed but dusty garden attached to it, littered with debris from the shelling. It is doubtful that Hitler ever saw the note, but even if he had, epistles from puppets that no longer had any in uence or strategic importance, were devoid of meaning – something the Maréchal never understood to his dying day. On April 21, as the French Army of General de Lattre de Tassigny continued its advance, Pétain was taken to the Swiss border at Bregenz and allowed to cross the frontier into France so that he could surrender himself.
On April 26, a giant Renault Nervastella limousine transported him across the border at Verrières-
sous-Jougne. There he was received by a committee headed by General König, who was furious with de
Pétain gave himself up and
Gaulle for foisting this onerous task upon him. The General saluted the Maréchal, much to the outrage entered France voluntarily
of the Résistance press, but refused to shake Pétain’s hand. A special train with a pullman carriage was
waiting. A fresh uproar ensued when it was made public that the train was given priority to other trains
bringing starved Frenchman back from the horrors of the camps. When the rst so-called déportés
arrived in Paris in the sunshine of early spring, people had been shocked to see human beings reduced given the task. (Peter Larsen)
Pétain’s trial began on July 23 and ran to August 15, 1945. The packed courtroom was sweltering, and the air was heavy with sweat and the expectation of a death penalty. (Peter Larsen)
on April 26, 1944. He was received by General Marie- Pierre König who was furious with de Gaulle for having been
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