The Chancellor of Honor of the Order of the Liberation, Daniel Cordier, died Friday, November 20, at the age of 100.
This former secretary of Jean Moulin was one of the last two companions of the Liberation.
Born in 1920 in Bordeaux, he became involved in politics at a very young age within the Action Française.
Admirer of Charles Maurras, he bathed in monarchist, nationalist and anti-Semitic ideas.
In June 1940, when the French army was swept away by the Wehrmacht, he was not yet 20 years old.
Revolted by the announcement of Marshal Pétain's request for an armistice, he decided to continue the fight.
"I ran up to my room because I didn't want my parents to see me cry. I threw myself on my bed and I sobbed because for me, France could not be beaten," he said. to France 24 during an interview in December 2017. "After these tears, I had decided to do something but I did not know what".
With about fifteen volunteers, he finally embarked from Bayonne for North Africa, but the ship was diverted to England.
Daniel Cordier in July 1940, in England © Museum of the Order of the Liberation
He then joined his comrades in the “Legion de Gaulleˮ”.
"What you have to understand is that I am a child of veterans of the 14-18 war. Basically what we wanted was to do what our parents did, nothing more no less ", he described to explain his choice.
"Unparalleled courage"
After being trained in a battalion of hunters, he was finally assigned to the “Action” service of the Central Intelligence and Action Bureau (BCRA), the secret services of Free France.
In July 1942, he was finally parachuted near Montluçon.
A few days later, he met for the first time Rex, alias Jean Moulin, representative of General de Gaulle and delegate of the French National Committee, who hired him to organize his secretariat in Lyon.
After the arrest of his “boss”, as he called him, on June 21, 1943, in Caluire, near Lyon, Daniel Cordier continued his mission in the North zone.
Chased by the Gestapo, he escapes through the Pyrenees.
Interned in Spain, he returned to England at the end of May 1944, where he was appointed head of the airdrops section of BCRA agents.
The Cross of Liberation was awarded to him on November 20, 1944 for the following reason: “Secretary of the delegation from May 1942 to January 1944. In these functions, demonstrated outstanding qualities of dedication and courage.
Always on the go, during this long mission, he spent lavishly and never ceased to stand out for his tenacious energy, his abnegation, his spirit of sacrifice and his coolness.
For this former resistance fighter, this decoration has a special meaning.
It is the only medal he wears every June 18 on the occasion of the commemorations of General de Gaulle's appeal.
"The only thing that has been an absolute reward is to be a Companion of the Liberation", he liked to stress.
The decree attributing the Cross of the Liberation to Daniel Cordier © Musée de l'Ordre de la Liberation
"Freedom is the sun of life"
After the war, Daniel Cordier devoted his life to painting and began a collection of contemporary art.
Since the beginning of the 1980s, Daniel Cordier has been a historian to defend the memory of Jean Moulin.
In particular, in 2009 he published an autobiographical story entitled "Alias Caracalla".
For him, it is a real duty "to all the people who have died".
Asked regularly to participate in conferences or meetings with school children, he did not see himself as a model.
"I did what I believed in. I fought throughout the war for the four and a half years. I did everything I was asked to do," he summed up with great humility .
Seventy-five years after the end of World War II, he liked to remember that "freedom is the sun of life".
"We must remain free for a lifetime. No one can allow himself to change our life, to impose another vision," he insisted.
"We fought for freedom for almost five years. If I had to do it again, I would do it again immediately. It's the one thing in my life that I'm sure I would do it again right away."
A last Companion of the Liberation
Shortly after the announcement of his death, President Emmanuel Macron announced that a national tribute would be paid to him.
"Daniel Cordier, the resistant, the secretary of Jean Moulin, left. When France was in danger, he and his companions took all the risks so that France remained France. We owe them our freedom and our honor. . We will pay him a national tribute, "wrote the head of state on Twitter.
After his disappearance and that of Pierre Simonet on November 5, there is only one companion of the Liberation still alive, Hubert Germain, also 100 years old.
Some 1,038 people, including six women, have been awarded this title of Companion of the Liberation, as well as 18 military units and five French municipalities: Nantes, Grenoble, Paris, the martyr village of Vassieux-en-Vercors and the Île de Sein.
It is expected that the last of the companions who will die will be buried at Mont-Valérien, the main place of execution of resistance fighters and hostages by the German army during the Second World War.
Charles de Gaulle inaugurated the Memorial to Combatant France there in 1960.
Daniel Cordier, the resistance fighter, Jean Moulin's secretary, is gone.
When France was in peril, he and his companions took all the risks so that France remained France.
We owe them our freedom and our honor.
We will pay him a national tribute.
pic.twitter.com/CoSzoo9Ngt
- Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) November 20, 2020
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