Laval, << luh VAL, >> Pierre (1883-1945), was a French politician who collaborated with the Germans during World War II. After the Germans invaded France in May 1940, Laval urged surrender. He served as the head of government in Vichy France during 1940 and again from 1942 until the liberation of France in 1944. Both times he held office under Henri Philippe Petain, Vichy France’s chief of state (see Pétain, Henri Philippe ; Vichy ). After Germany surrendered in 1945, Laval was handed over to the new French government and was convicted of treason. He swallowed poison in a suicide attempt on the day of his execution. But the attempt failed, and he was shot by a firing squad.
Laval was born on June 28, 1883, in Auvergne province in southern France. He studied at the universities of Lyon and Paris. In 1914, he was elected to the French Chamber of Deputies, and after World War I (1914-1918), he began to rise in politics. He held several cabinet posts and was premier twice. In 1935, as premier, he shared in the Hoare-Laval Agreement, proposing that France and the United Kingdom negotiate peace between Italy and Ethiopia. In 1938, he supported the Munich Agreement, giving Germany part of Czechoslovakia. He died on Oct. 15, 1945.
