WWII vet from Des Plaines receives France's Legion of Honor
Xenophon "Fonda" Doudalis accepted a deserved honor Friday with the quiet dignity of a soldier.
The World War II Army veteran nodded occasionally in appreciation during the ceremony at Des Plaines City Hall. And when it came time to address the audience, Doudalis wouldn't give a lengthy speech.
He simply repeated "thank you" after Guillaume Lacroix, the consul general of France in Chicago, pinned the Legion of Honor medal - the most prestigious distinction bestowed by the French government - on the lapel of his gray suit.
"This is an honor to accept this," Doudalis said.
The 94-year-old was gracious, even though he has had to live much of his life with the scars of war.
He was 19, a kid really, when he joined the Army in 1943. With his battalion in Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army, Doudalis advanced across France, liberating villages and cities from German occupation.
It was the spring of 1945 when Doudalis and his unit crossed the border into Germany and must have thought the worst of the war was behind them, Lacroix said.
Instead, the soldiers would eventually witness the atrocities of the Nazi regime's Dachau concentration camp in southern Germany.
"You were part of the initial liberation phase of the camp. Your mission was first to photograph the area for assessment. Then you helped the survivors out of the camp," Lacroix said, turning to Doudalis. "The dreadful images of those days will haunt you for the rest of your life."
Before the ceremony, Lacroix went on YouTube to see images from the concentration camp and told the gathering to "take a moment" and do the same.
"Sgt. Doudalis is a hero. He's a true American hero, but I'm inclined to say he's a true French hero for what he did for us, for our parents, our grandparents," said Lacroix, who decorated Doudalis with the honor recognizing those who have performed "valorous conduct" for his country.
After the war, Doudalis - who was born in Chicago, grew up in Greece and returned to the area as a teen - would become a tool-and-die maker and a founding member of St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church in Des Plaines.
For years, he internalized his war experiences until he began to open up, to the shock of his family, in the early 2000s.
"My memory always goes through that," Doudalis said.
He also would relive his memories with Diana Anastazia, who was introduced to him by her friend Donna Allen-Sebok through their work running nonprofit groups supporting veterans.
"There's such a place in her heart for anybody who's served along that path of liberation," Allen-Sebok said of Anastazia, whose father, a Polish Catholic, was freed from the Buchenwald concentration camp.
Anastazia submited a Legion of Honor application with the help of Aubrey Youngs to the French government with meticulous details about Doudalis' service.
"We started over a year ago, and it turned out that the day we actually sent the application was Bastille Day," said Anastazia, referring to the French national holiday. "I mean just like synchronistic stuff all the way around on this."
Doudalis' humility in receiving the award left Anastazia and others in tears, but the ceremony meant something else to her.
"What joy," she said.