On the night of 24 to 25 October 1941, Henri's father (a deputy archivist at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vichy France), aunt and a servant were murdered in the family castle.

Thereafter, he resided in Paris from 1943 to 1947, where he married a young singer, Suzanne Graux, for whom he wrote songs and with whom he had two sons.

Disgusted by the power of man's fascination with money, he quickly spent the family inheritance, donating to a number of good causes.

In 1952, the filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot made a film adaptation of The Wages of Fear with Yves Montand and Charles Vanel.

In 1962, Girard moved to Algeria with his family, where he helped establish a journalism school and launched a newspaper, Révolution Africaine.