page_title: Félix Cadras
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Félix Cadras / World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: Plaque in memory of Félix Cadras, communiste shot by the nazis. 119 boulevard Davout, Paris 20th arr. Français&#160;: Plaque en mémoire de Félix Cadras, communiste fusillé par les nazis. 119 boulevard Davout, Paris 20e arr.
context_page_description: Félix Otto Cadras was a French lace designer and communist militant who became one of the leaders of the French Communist Party.
  During World War II he helped organize the communist underground during the occupation of France.
  He was arrested and executed by firing squad.
  After the war the communists presented him as a hero of the Resistance.
context_section_description: With the outbreak of World War II (1939–45) Cadras was mobilized on 4 September 1939 as an artillery sergeant and assigned to the garrison of Boulogne-sur-Mer, where he remained until the German invasion in May 1940.
  In June 1940 his unit, which had retreated to Les Sables-d'Olonne, surrendered.
  Cadras avoided being taken prisoner and made his way to Tours and then to Toulouse, where he was demobilized.
  His sister Georgette found him there and told him the underground leadership of the PCE wanted him to help organize the resistance in the southern zone.
  Early in 1941 he was called to Paris to work with Jacques Duclos and Benoît Frachon.
  He was given the job of coordinating between regional groups and establishing printing operations, stores and distribution networks.
  He organized the first street demonstrations in Paris and the miner's strike in Nord-Pas-de-Calais.
  Cadras attended the meetings that led to the National Front being established.
  He provided material needed by the Resistance units that became the Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (FTP).
  A failure in security revealed the identities of Cadras and Arthur Dallidet, a member of the PCE leadership staff.
  Cadras was arrested on 15 February 1942 by a special police brigade.
  He was arrested outside his house, and shouted a warning to his wife, who was inside.
  The police broke in and found her throwing a bag of documents through the window, which turned out to describe Resistance efforts throughout France.
  After interrogation, he was passed on to the Gestapo for further questioning.
  Cadras was tortured by the Germans.
  He was tried and sentenced to death, and imprisoned in La Santé Prison.
  Cadras was executed by a German firing squad on 30 May 1942 at Fort Mont-Valérien, Paris, along with Arthur Dallidet, Louis Salomon and Jacques Decour.
  The executions were a reprisal for an attempted assassination in Le Havre on 23 May 1942.
  Cadras was said to have been singing La Marseillaise when he was shot.
  After the war Cadras was presented as a martyr by the Communist Party, an ideal of a young working-class militant.
  He was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by a decree of 17 January 1961.
  A school in Calais is named after him, and a street in Calais-Nord.
caption: Plaque in memory of Félix Cadras at 119 Boulevard Davout, Paris 20th arr, where he lived under a false name during World War II
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