Indignité nationale (French “national unworthiness”) was a legally defined offense, created at the Liberation in the context of the “Épuration légale”. 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. Indignité nationale ceased to be a criminal offense in January 1951 but the people convicted in 1944–