On June 4, 1936, Leon Blum, a socialist, became the first Jew to be elected Prime Minister of France. His government introduced major reforms, such as instituting a 40-hour work week, collective bargaining for working conditions, and paid vacations.
However, he did not have great success in his fight against the economic depression and at the international level he opted for a non-interventionist position before the Spanish Civil War, which distanced him from his communist allies.
His government fell a year later due to Senate opposition to the creation of a capital tax. In 1938 he was elected again and this time his foreign policy was characterized by a firmer stance towards fascism, trying to get the western powers to stop the expansionism of Nazi Germany.
In 1940 the Germans invaded France and Blum was arrested. After a trial in which he was found guilty of nothing (1942), he was handed over to the Nazis and sent to the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps (1943-1944). After World War II he returned to France and chaired a two-month socialist government.