Page "Léon Blum" Paragraph 14

Blum was among the " The Vichy 80 ", a minority of parliamentarians that refused to grant full powers to Marshal Philippe Pétain.

He was arrested by the authorities in September and held until 1942, when he was put on trial in the Riom Trial on charges of treason, for having " weakened France's defenses " by ordering her arsenal shipped to Spain, leaving France's infantry unsupported by heavy artillery on the eastern front against Nazi Germany.

He used the courtroom to make a brilliant indictment of the French military and pro-German politicians like Pierre Laval.

The trial was such an embarrassment to the Vichy regime that the Germans ordered it called off.

He was transferred to German custody and imprisoned in Germany until 1945.