Stéphane Hessel

Stéphane Frédéric Hessel (born Stefan Friedrich Kaspar Hessel; 20 October 1917 – 26 February 2013) was a French diplomat, ambassador, writer, concentration camp survivor, Resistance member and BCRA agent. Born German, he became a naturalised French citizen in 1939. He became an observer of the editing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. In 2011 he was named by Foreign Policy magazine in its list of top global thinkers. In later years his activism focused on economic inequalities, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and protection for the post–World War II social vision. His short book Time for Outrage! sold 4.5 million copies worldwide. Hessel and his book were linked and cited as an inspiration for the Spanish Indignados, the Arab Spring, the American Occupy Wall Street movement and other political movements.

Early years

Stefan Friedrich Kaspar Hessel was born in Berlin, the son of journalist Helen (née Grund) and writer Franz Hessel, who inspired the characters of Jules and Kathe in Henri-Pierre Roché's novel Jules and Jim (Kathe was called Catherine in the subsequent film adaptation by François Truffaut). His paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants who joined the Lutheran church, and his mother was from a Christian family. Hessel emigrated to Paris with his parents in 1924. Having received his baccalauréat when 15 years old, he was eventually admitted in 1939 to the École Normale Supérieure. He became a naturalized French citizen in 1939, before being mobilized later that year into the French army in Saint-Maixent-l'École. His first wife, Vitia, was the daughter of Boris Mirkin-Getzevich.