Indignité nationale

Indignité nationale (French for 'national unworthiness') was a legally defined offence in France created for the trials of collaborators that followed the liberation of France during WWII. The offence of indignité nationale was meant to fill a legal void: while the laws in application in 1939 had provisions against treason, murder and such crimes, they did not take into account reprehensible behaviours which occurred during the occupation and in the Vichy regime, such as participation in the Waffen SS or in the Milice. The bill of the "Ordinance Instituting National Indignity" was presented by the Provisional Government of the French Republic government on June 26, 1944 and adopted by the National Assembly on August 26, 1944. In addition to typical punishments, such as imprisonment and death, a temporary or permanent deprivation of civil rights was also imposed on those convicted of indignité nationale, under the name dégradation nationale (transl. national demotion). Indignité nationale ceased to be a criminal offence in January 1951, and the punishment of dégradation nationale was lifted in August 1953.