In October 1940, he was dismissed by the Vichy régime which suspected him of anti-Vichy feelings ("mal penser") and returned to the Conseil d'État now in the Puy de Dôme.

At this time, his brother, the magistrate René Parodi, part of the Liberation-Nord resistance movement, was arrested by the Gestapo; he was found hanged in his cell in April 1942.

On 17 August, he obtained from the Conseil national de la Résistance (CNR) permission to suspend the outbreak of the insurrection.

On the 19th, to keep the resistance united, he agreed with the CNR and the Comité parisien de la Libération to the proclamation of the insurrection, without informing the leader of the Free France forces, General Koenig.

With two assistants, engineers Roland Pré and Émile Laffon, he was arrested on 20 August by the Nazis when a truce proposed by the Swedish Consul-General Raoul Nordling came into force.

He openly admitted his ministerial status and insisted on meeting General Dietrich von Choltitz, military commander of Paris, who released them presently.

[1][2][4] From September 1944 to November 1945, he was the Minister of Labour and Social Security and oversaw the introduction of the French national health service.

He was appointed a state councillor in December 1945, and began a diplomatic career in 1946; the same year he was the main French delegate in making Allied arrangements with Italy.