Philippe Pétain

• Also known as

Philippe Pétain, commonly referred to as Marshal Pétain, born on April 24, 1856, in Cauchy-à-la-Tour (Pas-de-Calais) and who died in detention on July 23, 1951, in Port-Joinville (Vendée), was a French military officer, diplomat, and statesman. Elevated to the dignity of Marshal of France in 1918, he was sentenced to death for high treason for his role as Head of the French State during the Occupation and the period known as the Collaboration. In 1945, he was stripped of his civic rights—a penalty known as "national indignity"—and deprived of all his military and civil honors. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.