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[music] [Caption: "I feel so at home in my little
Ann Arbor that I'm beginning to sink down roots here and have a hard time imagining
my leaving it. But I am not doing anything useful here." Raoul Wallenberg 1934]
[Caption: Raoul Wallenberg: One Person Can Make a Difference]
[music] Narrator: The University of Michigan. In the
1930's young people from all over the world came to this center of academic excellence:
to learn, to grow. To become the men and women they were each destined to be.
Including a young man named Raoul Wallenberg, one of the University of Michigan's most distinguished
and revered graduates. John Godfrey, Chair, University of Michigan
Wallenberg Committee: Raoul Wallenberg was the son of a very well to do noble Swedish
family. Judie Lax, Jewish Community Foundation: He
could have gone to many schools. But chose the University of Michigan because of the
Midwestern values and morals that his grandfather was looking for in sending him to a public
university, rather than one of the Ivy League schools or schools on the West Coast.
Chair Godfrey: People who saw Wallenberg did not see a dashing adventurer. They did not
see someone who was a noble hero. He behaved at the University of Michigan as
any other student would. He rode his bicycle, he ate hot dogs. He was an ordinary guy
Judie: There are extraordinary people that show up in our lives. We may not know how
extraordinary they will be in the future. Raoul Wallenberg, at the University of Michigan,
no one ever knew what he would then go on to do a decade later.
[Hitler speaking to a large audience, in German] Narrator: After Adolf Hitler invaded Poland
in 1939 and conquered much of Europe, the German dictator began in earnest his plan
to systematically exterminate Europe's nine million Jews.
Professor Andrew F. Nagy: It was very scary living in Budapest during the last few months
of the war. The Hungarian Nazi's were randomly killing
people on the street. They were coming into houses and taking people away.
Narrator: At the request of the United States War Refugee Board, in 1944, Raoul Wallenberg
accepted an appointment at the Swedish embassy in Budapest so he could take advantage of
his country's diplomatic immunity. It was here, in this besieged city, that he
was to lead a mission that would change his life and the lives of thousands of others
forever. Professor Irene Butter: He left a very comfortable
life, a wonderful family, probably a very promising career, because he was very bright
and very capable, to undertake a mission of rescuing a people that were not even his own
people. Chair Godfrey: Sweden was a neutral nation
in World War II. He had the freedom to travel where others did not in Europe.
He was sent to Budapest to save as many Jews as he could in the final months of the war.
Judie: Raoul Wallenberg put his life on the line by going to safe houses, by issuing passports,
by going to the death marches, by using his own money, using money given to him to do
this to save people. Professor Nagy: I personally owe my life to
Wallenberg. I lived in a Swedish protected house which was the result of Wallenberg's
activity. Narrator: While Raoul Wallenberg's heroic
actions remain unknown to many, over the years a devoted group of individuals committed themselves
to finding a way to honor, not only Wallenberg's legacy, but also his connection to the University
of Michigan and the Ann Arbor community he loved so much.
Professor Butter: The purpose of the committee was to create an endowment and to define the
way in which this endowment could be used to honor Raoul Wallenberg.
Judie: It wasn't until the fiftieth anniversary of his graduation that Andy Nagy and Irene
Butter got together and then pulled others of us in.
We tried to decide what would be the best vehicle to do this. It was a lecture that
we could tell the story year after year. Chair Godfrey: The Raoul Wallenberg Lecture
is about an exemplary kind of action which must remind us of what it is to be human.
Professor Butter: The lecture series so far has exceeded my expectations by far and I
never would have dreamt that we would have been able to attract the kind of people we
brought here. Miep Gies, 1994 Wallenberg Medalist: Ladies,
gentlemen and children, I am deeply moved by the warm welcome you extended to me and
I am very grateful for all courtesies. Chair Godfrey: Recipients of the Wallenberg
Medal are people who have found themselves in a moment of crisis and were required to
take extraordinary action. [Background: Kailash Satyarthi, 2002 Wallenberg
Medalist] Chair Godfrey: Not an instant of crisis like
a train wreck, but a moment of moral crisis that takes enormous courage to make a decision
to act on behalf of other people. Professor Butter: Miep Gies was the woman
who sheltered Anne Frank and her family. Judie: After they were arrested and when Miep
realized that Anne wasn't coming back she turned over the diaries to the world.
Professor Nagy: Elie Wiesel was the first, and for a while, the only person who publicized
the Holocaust, the horrors of the Holocaust. What happened. Who was involved. Who was helpful.
He became a very visible example of the Holocaust and the history of the Holocaust.
[Background music and caption: His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet;
1994 Wallenberg Medalist] Professor Butter: The Dalai Lama is the spiritual
and secular leader of the Tibetan people. A very important figure in Buddhism in general.
He had hoped to get the Tibet returned to the Tibetan people. But, that hasn't happened.
China is still ruling Tibet. [Background Music, Caption: John Lewis; 2000
New Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church: John Lewis was a very important, young activist
during the Civil Rights movement. He was one of the major student leaders in the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He did a lot. Was beaten, was bloodied. Went
to jail. He was almost killed. Yet he fought back. Forty years, later he is still fighting
. Not as a member of "SNCC" but now as a member of the United States House Of Representatives.
He is a congressman. Chair Godfrey: Our 2005 medal winner, Paul
Rusesabagina, was a hotel manager in Kigali, which is the capital city of Rwanda.
In 1994 there was a moment of growing violence between the two main groups of the Rwandan
population. When this broke into ethnic violence, the Tutsis began to be slaughtered in the
streets of Kigali. Rusesabagina, who managed the most prominent
hotel in Kigali, opened the doors and sheltered many, many hundreds of individuals within
the hotel compound. Director Daniel Herwitz, Institute for the
Humanities, University of Michigan: There is a natural tendency of human beings, of
all of us, to forget. We become involved in the things that we like.
We have our daily lives, we work hard. We are stressed. We have families. We have things.
We buy more things. There is a tendency in this country to think
that so long as the price of a VCR is going down, the history of the world is assured.
It is not assured. Pastor Flowers: We live in a world where there
is injustice. There is oppression. There is a need for Wallenbergs all around the world
Chair Godfrey: The Wallenberg Medal is more than a medal itself. It's more than a cast
hunk of bronze hung on a ribbon. Professor Nagy: I think there is a very simple
answer of what Wallenberg teaches us. Namely, that one person can make a difference.
Pastor Flowers: You do not have to be born with special gift or special traits. You just
need a willing heart, a committed spirit and a dedicated mentality to say I'm going to
do what I need to do. That's what it takes. [music]
[Caption: While Raoul Wallenberg saved tens of thousands of Jews, his own fate remains
a mystery. On January 17, 1945 he left Budapest with
a Russian escort to meet with Soviet authorities and never returned.
Despite efforts by his family, the U.S., Sweden and other countries to discover the truth,
him, in recognition of his courage and his struggle for human rights.]