Which means 90% of people who committed extremely serious crimes in service of the Nazis, serious enough to warrant the death penalty, were gradually let out of prison in the years after that. Of the people not convicted to death, 100% were "forgiven". Not really, but read on.
Most people convicted to death (AND Robert Schuman, who was convicted, but later founded the EU) were guilty of helping the Nazis deport and massacre people, and not one or two, hundreds at least. Tens of thousands, some.
And the reason for releasing most of them is even worse, if you disregard that half managed to escape. The reason is that the resistance (and remaining Nazis, by the way, who in some places killed literally everyone they could get their hands on in retreat) carried out their own executions in French towns, villages and cities. Without courts, or judgement. Needless to say, pretty much everyone in government was guilty and more and more were getting executed.
So a "clean slate" was declared, to prevent the country falling apart entirely, and these people were let go. Not just in France. Spain. Italy. Belgium. Luxembourg. The Netherlands. In countries that were Nazi-leaning (like the Netherlands, Austria or Italy) some government departments (think health, youth, justice and education departments) literally have archives of their own cooperation with the holocaust.
Please note that it is now known that quite a few victims of both the courts and the extrajudicial killings were convicted as Nazi collaborators ... BY Nazi collaborators who remained in government and wanted revenge.
Needless to say, there was a wave of murders around the time of every release, with suspiciously little effort going to finding the perpetrators.
Note how softly it is put on Wikipedia, what he did, today. He "was in charge of refugees", not even mentioning the tiny little detail that he was in charge of refugees during the Nazi takeover of France. What he did was help the Nazis detain and deport tens of thousands of French citizens, as well letting cripples and mentally ill people, including children, freeze and starve to death (and worse). Yes he betrayed the Nazis afterwards, before the end of the war, and was let in government ... because there were a lot of Nazi collaborators and actual Nazis left in the postwar French government who were needed to rebuild France and needed to be reassured they wouldn't be hunted down like they deserved.
He is also the closest thing we have to the founder of the EU.
Oh and if you think this is the only EU leader that could be criticized for past decisions, including for killing their own countrymen, guess again.
Wow, this stood out. "Only 791 executions were carried out."
Which means 90% of people who committed extremely serious crimes in service of the Nazis, serious enough to warrant the death penalty, were gradually let out of prison in the years after that. Of the people not convicted to death, 100% were "forgiven". Not really, but read on.
Most people convicted to death (AND Robert Schuman, who was convicted, but later founded the EU) were guilty of helping the Nazis deport and massacre people, and not one or two, hundreds at least. Tens of thousands, some.
And the reason for releasing most of them is even worse, if you disregard that half managed to escape. The reason is that the resistance (and remaining Nazis, by the way, who in some places killed literally everyone they could get their hands on in retreat) carried out their own executions in French towns, villages and cities. Without courts, or judgement. Needless to say, pretty much everyone in government was guilty and more and more were getting executed.
So a "clean slate" was declared, to prevent the country falling apart entirely, and these people were let go. Not just in France. Spain. Italy. Belgium. Luxembourg. The Netherlands. In countries that were Nazi-leaning (like the Netherlands, Austria or Italy) some government departments (think health, youth, justice and education departments) literally have archives of their own cooperation with the holocaust.
Please note that it is now known that quite a few victims of both the courts and the extrajudicial killings were convicted as Nazi collaborators ... BY Nazi collaborators who remained in government and wanted revenge.
Needless to say, there was a wave of murders around the time of every release, with suspiciously little effort going to finding the perpetrators.
Except the ones who founded the EU:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Schuman#World_War_II
Note how softly it is put on Wikipedia, what he did, today. He "was in charge of refugees", not even mentioning the tiny little detail that he was in charge of refugees during the Nazi takeover of France. What he did was help the Nazis detain and deport tens of thousands of French citizens, as well letting cripples and mentally ill people, including children, freeze and starve to death (and worse). Yes he betrayed the Nazis afterwards, before the end of the war, and was let in government ... because there were a lot of Nazi collaborators and actual Nazis left in the postwar French government who were needed to rebuild France and needed to be reassured they wouldn't be hunted down like they deserved.
He is also the closest thing we have to the founder of the EU.
Oh and if you think this is the only EU leader that could be criticized for past decisions, including for killing their own countrymen, guess again.