André Zirnheld, the Song of a Partisan

« I want insecurity and anxiety, I want turmoil and the fight » Only two men, Joseph Kessel and André Zirnheld, have bequeathed to us a universal hymn to the Resistance. But while everyone knows Le Chant des partisans, who, beyond veteran circles, has ever read the sublime Prayer of the Compagnon de la Libération Zirnheld — the first FFL paratrooper officer struck down in the thick of the Desert War, at the age of 29?

His poem, passed down to posterity under the name of « Prière du parachutiste », was nonetheless taken up on every front of the Liberation.

It is the extraordinary destiny of this anti-fascist intellectual — from the Parisian bohemia and the "Esprit" group to the shock troops of Free France — that this masterly biography recounts for the first time. « He was of the stature of Saint-Exupéry », said General Bergé of this philosopher who fell in the uniform of the mythical SAS Rogue Heroes, a fabulous phantom unit of desert pirates.

At a time when war is making a dramatic return to Europe, this gripping investigation — founded on previously unpublished archives, blending coming-of-age narrative, adventure story, epic and initiatory quest — proves to be of burning relevance. Or: how to stand firm in a storm. The intimate odyssey of a hero to be discovered, reflected upon and, above all, passed on.

Preface by Lieutenant General Olivier Tramond