France’s Hessel, Who Inspired Occupy Wall Street, Dies

[Peter Lemkin]

France's Hessel, Who Inspired Occupy Wall Street, Dies
By Helene Fouquet - Feb 27, 2013 3:07 PM GMT+0100

Stephane Hessel, the author of the best-selling book "Indignez-vous!," which inspired protests like "Occupy Wall Street" in New York and Los Indignados in Spain, has died. He was 95.

The former United Nations diplomat, concentration-camp survivor and hero of the French Resistance, died "during the night," his wife, Christiane Hessel-Chabry, told Agence France- Presse.

Author Stephane Hessel poses after a press conference to present the film "Indignados" on Feb. 10, 2012 in Berlin.

Hessel became famous in 2010 when he published his 32-page protest manifesto, with millions of copies that went into print in 30 languages -- including an English version titled "Time for Outrage."

Drawing on his experience in the Resistance, Hessel called on his readers to remember -- and continue to fight for -- the Four Freedoms outlined by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his 1941 State of the Union address: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear.

"His universal message awakened people's conscience on all continents and for all generations," French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said in a statement. "There's no doubt his work and his courage will continue to inspire women and men fighting for freedom."

Hessel wrote on the importance of indignation and encouraged "our younger generations" to rekindle the spirit of the Resistance in a non-violent battle against injustice.

"It's time to take over! It's time to get angry!" he wrote. "Politicians, economists, intellectuals, do not surrender! The true fabric of our society remains strong. Let us not be defeated by the tyranny of the world financial markets that threaten peace and democracy everywhere. I wish all of you to find your reason for indignation. This is a precious thing."

Born in Berlin in 1917, Hessel moved to France in his childhood and became a French citizen. He participated in the UN group that drafted the Universal Declaration of Humans Rights, adopted in 1948. He later worked in Vietnam and Algeria and participated in French politics.

[Magda Hassan]

So sad. An inspiring person with an important message that others must carry on. I just heard this on the radio here. Glad you posted this Peter.

[Jan Klimkowski]

A great loss to humanity.

Los indignados

[Peter Lemkin]

Stephane Hessel; French Resistance hero helped inspire Occupy Wall Street
By Lori Hinnant

February 28, 2013

Stephane Hessel, an icon to many generations.

PARIS As a spy for the French Resistance, Stephane Hessel survived the Nazi death camp at Buchenwald by assuming the identity of a French prisoner who was already dead. As a diplomat, he helped write the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And at age 93, after a distinguished but relatively anonymous life, he published a slim pamphlet that even he expected would be little more than a vanity project.

Au contraire.

Mr. Hessel's 32-page Time for Outrage'' sold millions of copies across Europe, tapping into a vein of popular discontent with capitalism and transforming him into an intellectual superstar within weeks. Translated into English, the pocket-size book became a source of inspiration for the Occupy Wall Street movement.

In the book, Mr. Hessel urges young people to take inspiration from the anti-Nazi resistance to which he once belonged and rally against what he saw as the newest evil: the love of money.

The book, called Indignez-vous'' in French, had an initial run of 8,000 copies in 2010 and sold for $4 before becoming a bestseller.

Mr. Hessel died overnight in Paris. He was 95.

I'm eagerly awaiting the taste of death,'' he said in 2011. "Death is something to savor, and I hope to savor mine. In the meantime, given that it has not yet happened and that I'm generally getting around normally, I'm using the time to throw out some messages.''

Born in Germany, he moved with his family to France, where they settled into an avant-garde life, hanging out with artists like Alexander Calder and Marcel Duchamp.

In 1941 Mr. Hessel fled to London to join the resistance led by General Charles de Gaulle. He snuck back into occupied France on a spying mission in 1944, was arrested by the Gestapo, and shipped off to the Nazis' Buchenwald concentration camp. The day before he was to be hanged, he swapped his identity with another French prisoner who had died of typhus.

As a French diplomat after World War II, Mr. Hessel joined Eleanor Roosevelt on a panel that wrote the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Mr. Hessel leaves us with the invaluable heritage of fighting for universal human values and his inalienable sense of liberty,'' Mayor Bertrand Delanoe of Paris said Wednesday.

A proud Socialist, Mr. Hessel said the aim of Time for Outrage'' was to convince young people that they can change society for the better even if they feel the world is controlled by entrenched and financially powerful interests.

Mr. Hessel said he purposely offered no solutions.

I am not giving them a meaning, but I am saying, Do try to find for yourself what would be meaningful.'''

Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Mr. Hessel had succeeded in that goal.

In France, in Europe, in the world, Stephane Hessel was the spirit of resistance incarnate,'' Ayrault said. For every generation, for young people, he was a source of inspiration but also a reference. At 95, he embodied faith in the future of this new century.''

In Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council observed a minute's silence in Mr. Hessel's memory, which the organization said was unprecedented.

Stephane Hessel was a towering figure in the human rights world,'' said Navi Pilly, the organization's high commissioner for human rights. His close involvement with the team who drafted the Universal Declaration is enough by itself to earn him a place of honor in global history. But he went on to do so much more and kept contributing to the advancement of human rights well into his 90s.''