High Court of Justice Haute Cour de justice (3W)

Consists of speeches, sentences, witness lists, reports, trial proceedings, telegrams, correspondence, interrogations, and a sentence ledger documenting the High Court of Justice, which was specifically created by decree of the French Ministry of Justice of the Provisional Government of the French Republic on November 18, 1944 to try persons who were a part of the government of Vichy from June 1940 to August 1944. Tried persons included the Chief of State, the Prime Minister and his cabinet ministers, Resident Generals in the protectorates, Governor Generals, and High Commissioners. The original decree ("ordonnance") was modified by the laws of December 27, 1945, April 19, 1948, and March 3, 1954, and by the decree of January 2, 1959. There were 106 trials concerning 108 individuals between 1944 and 1949 and 8 between 1955 and 1960. The files vary in size from one thin folder to 9 boxes for Pierre Laval and 27 boxes for Maréchal Pétain. The collection includes also records of series W III, files missing from 3W.

The records are arranged in the following 10 groups: 1. 3W/l to 3/W27: general information about how the court was created, how it functioned, and its personnel 2. 3W/28: final speeches by the prosecution, sentences, and sequesters of property 3. 3W/29+3W/30: lists of witnesses 4. 3W/31-3W/43: stenographic reports of most sessions 5. 3W/44- 346: trial proceedings for most of the accused (see pdfs of the 11 volume finding aid) 6. 3W/347 - 357: the "Berlin archives" including telegrams and correspondence between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Reich and the German Embassy in Paris as well as correspondence from German authorities 7. 3W/358: reports and interrogations of Germans 8. 3W/359: miscellaneous documents 9. 3W/360: ledger recording the sentences and their applications 10. W III -missing files from 3W.