A SCHOOL is to have the prestigious honour of being represented at the state funeral of an inspirational former French Resistance fighter.

A representative from Dame Allan’s Schools, in Fenham, Newcastle, will attend the funeral of Stéphane Hessel on Thursday at Les Invalides in Paris.

Mr Hessel, a former French Resistance fighter and concentration camp survivor, died last week at the age of 95.

His links with the Tyneside school began in 2004, when the school became the UK representative of Relais de la Mémoire, an organisation set up by former resistance fighters and deportees so that the horror and atrocities of war should not be forgotten.

Dame Allan’s will be represented by Andrea Fairbairn, former assistant head of the girls’ school, who was responsible , for the involvement in Relais.

Last night, Mrs Fairbairn said the funeral was a celebration of all Mr Hessel’s outstanding achievements.

She said: “I feel very honoured to be attending Stéphane Hessel’s state funeral.

“I feel great affection for the man. He has had such a remarkable life and is one of life’s truly great men. He was so humble and extremely charismatic.”

Mr Hessel was guest of honour at the school’s Speech Day 2007, when he moved and inspired parents and pupils alike. They heard a powerful and personal interpretation of the aims of the Relais de la Mémoire organisation and of his love of poetry.

Mr Hessel was co-author of the Declaration of Human Rights, a diplomat, and an active human rights campaigner. He was also Ambassadeur de France, a Commander of the Légion d’honneur, and a Grand Officer of France’s Order of Merit.

He became a best-selling author at the age of 93 when his 2010 manifesto Time for Outrage sold more than 4.5m copies in 35 countries.

Dame Allan’s Principal, Dr John Hind said: “Stéphane Hessel was a truly remarkable man.

“He greatly honoured our schools by accepting our offer of honorary Old Allanian status. He spoke to me personally to accept the offer and to express his gratitude for it.

“For a man whose honours and international renown were so great, to speak personally and with such genuine humanity regarding our own relatively modest recognition was the mark of a truly great generosity of spirit.

“To have met Stéphane was to have shared in that generosity and to have been enriched by it. Stéphane was a truly great man; I personally and all my pupils and colleagues are the better for having known him.”

Later this month, Mrs Fairbairn will read a tribute from a member of the Sixth Form at a memorial service in Marseille for members of Relais de la Mémoire.

A LIFE LIVED BRAVELY

STEPHANE Hessel was born in Berlin on October 20, 1917.

He moved with his family to France at the age of just seven-years-old.

Mr Hessel fled to London in 1941 to become part of the French Resistance, led by Charles de Gaulle.

 

He went back into France as a spy in 1944, where he was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to the Nazis’ concentration camp.

Mr Hessel managed to survive the one attempt to kill him when, just a day before he was due to be hanged, who took on the identity of a French prisoner who was already dead.

He became a French diplomat after the Second World War and was involved in editing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In 2010, Mr Hessel became a best-selling author in France when his work, Time for Outrage, inspired global social protests.

He met with the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama during a conference in Toulouse, France, in 2011.