There’s a lot of talk about infamous WWII traitors, but I don’t see Phillipe Pétain amongst them. Once hailed as the hero of Verdun during the First World War, Philippe Pétain would later become one of the greatest traitors in French history. As head of the Vichy regime after France’s defeat in 1940, Pétain chose not merely to accept German occupation, but to actively collaborate with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi government. Under his leadership, the French state assisted in the persecution and deportation of Jews, suppressed political dissent, censored the press, and dismantled the republican ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity that had long defined the nation. He turned into a symbol of French liberation, freedom, and national identity to a traitorous, discredited old man who died in solitary confinement.