Under the eyes of Hubert Germain, the last of the 1038 Companions of the Liberation still alive, France paid a last tribute to Daniel Cordier on Thursday.
A military ceremony organized in the courtyard of the Invalides in small groups and chaired by Emmanuel Macron.
The Head of State looked back on the long life of Daniel Cordier, who died on November 20, who "has always acted out of love": "The love of the country where the past, the land and the taste of the country mingle. 'universal;
the love of freedom which justifies taking all risks;
the love of beauty which led him to reveal so many artists;
the love of truth which made him write History ”.
"The life of Daniel Cordier is an adventure novel," he summed up.
“He had in him a part of the national novel […] The taste for action and going beyond.
Impetuous bravery, a thirst for the absolute ”.
▶ Daniel #Cordier: the national homage
🗣 E. #Macron:
"The life of Daniel Cordier is an adventure novel. He had in him a part of the national novel (...) of overcoming and especially Love of his homeland, France "
📺En #DIRECT on # La26> https://t.co/7k8jirsJbP pic.twitter.com/KJkZVdmPel
- LCI (@LCI) November 26, 2020
Among the guests at the ceremony were former President François Hollande, Presidents of the Senate Gérard Larcher and of the National Assembly Richard Ferrand, Prime Minister Jean Castex, several ministers Florence Parly, Roselyne Bachelot) or even the head of 'Staff of the Armed Forces, General François Lecointre.
About ten family members and relatives of Daniel Cordier were also present.
We can "fight Nazism with all your might [...] and have been a nationalist and anti-republican moment"
Born August 10, 1920 in Bordeaux, Daniel Bouyjou-Gauthier, whose real name was then a young activist from Maurras and a monarchist, was about to be incorporated into the army when Marshal Pétain announced the armistice.
Revolted by this speech, he decides to immediately rally the Free French Forces (FFL) and leaves for London.
He then demonstrated that we "can fight Nazism with all its might [...] and have been a nationalist and anti-republican moment," Emmanuel Macron insisted on Wednesday.
In the summer of 1941, Daniel Cordier was appointed to the secret services of the FFL.
Parachuted into occupied France in July 1942, near Montlucon, he became secretary to Georges Bidault, head of the underground press agency of the Resistance.
Very quickly, he met in Lyon “Rex”, alias Jean Moulin, representative of General de Gaulle and delegate of the French National Committee.
Daniel Cordier is then the privileged witness of the immense difficulties encountered by "Rex" to unify the Resistance.
He remained his right-hand man until Jean Moulin's arrest in June 1943. He did not know his real name until October 1944.
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The dinner that turned Daniel Cordier's life upside down
After the war, Daniel Cordier reinvented his life as a painter and art dealer, becoming "one of the most daring looks of the century", according to the president.
A life in relative anonymity that he left at the end of the 1970s, furious at the accusations that Jean Moulin had been a crypto-communist agent.
The companion of the Liberation then undertakes research to defend his work and his memory.
And in 1983 published “Jean Moulin, the unknown from the Panthéon”, a colossal biography in three volumes of the illustrious resistance member.
He will be buried on Friday at Père-Lachaise
The Head of State met with Daniel Cordier on several occasions, to whom he awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor on June 18, 2018.
The former secretary of Jean Moulin, who became an art dealer after the war, will be buried on Friday in the Parisian cemetery of Père Lachaise.
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Since the start of the quinquennium, national tribute ceremonies have been organized at the Invalides for several personalities, such as Simone Veil, Jean d'Ormesson, Charles Aznavour and Jean Daniel as well as for gendarme Arnaud Beltrame or the 13 soldiers killed in Mali in 2019.
Daniel Cordier is to be buried on Friday in the Parisian cemetery of Père-Lachaise.
