Stéphane Hessel, French Author, Activist, Nazi Survivor, Dies At 95 After Inspiring Occupy Wall Street, Millions Of Readers

Stéphane Hessel has died at the age of 95.

The French author and Nazi concentration camp survivor died sometime between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, a Hessel's wife, Christiane Hessel-Chabry, told France's AFP news agency.

"It was in pursuit of his values that he engaged in the resistance," French President François Hollande told the Guardian. "He leaves us a lesson, which is to never accept any injustice."

Hessel's career peaked late in his storied life.

The 48-page pamphlet "Indignez-Vous!" or "Time For Outrage," published just three years ago, went on to become an international sensation, selling 4.5 million copies in 35 countries, becoming a rallying cry for international activist movements like the Arab spring and Occupy Wall Street

Stéphane Hessel said the "Indignez-Vous!" pamphlet was originally a speech commemorating French resistance to Hitler's Nazi invasion of the second world war.

"This is not an ideological revolution," Hessel said of the global protest movement led by Occupy Wall Street and others in an interview last year. "It is driven by an authentic desire to get what you need. From this point of view, the present generation is not asking governments to disappear but to change the way they deal with people's needs."

The son of two writers, Hessel was born into a Jewish family in Berlin in 1917. The family moved to France when he was eight.

Hessel once said he was not afraid of death.

"I'm eagerly awaiting the taste of death," told RTL radio 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."

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