Pier Laval French statesman Date of Birth: 28.06.1883 Country: France

Biography of Pierre Laval

Pierre Laval was a French statesman who held high government positions during the Third Republic. He served as Prime Minister from 1931 to 1932 and again from 1935 to 1936. During the years 1936 to 1940, he gained prominence as a media magnate, owning several newspapers and radio stations. As Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1935, he became notorious for signing a pact with British Foreign Secretary Samuel Hoare, which resulted in part of Ethiopia being ceded to Italy.

From 1940, Laval became an active member of the Vichy regime and a close collaborator of Marshal Pétain. From 1942 until the regime's downfall in 1944, he served as the head of government (Prime Minister). He simultaneously held the positions of Minister of Foreign and Internal Affairs, as well as Minister of Information. Laval organized the forced deportation of the best French workers to Germany, authorized the activities of the Gestapo in France to suppress the Resistance, established the French equivalent of the Gestapo known as the "Milice," and was responsible for the arrest and extermination of Jews in France.

Together with Pétain, Laval was evacuated by the Germans to Sigmaringen, Baden-Württemberg. Unlike Pétain, who surrendered to the Allies, Laval fled to Spain in May 1945 but was apprehended in Barcelona and deported to Austria. In July 1945, the Allies extradited him to the French government. Laval stood trial in Paris and was sentenced to death by firing squad for state treason. On the morning of his execution on October 15, 1945, Laval attempted to commit suicide by ingesting potassium cyanide, but it was detected in time, and he underwent several stomach washes. After regaining consciousness, he was executed by firing squad.