[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
Wallenberg Medalist]
The Rev. Kenneth James Flowers, Pastor; Greater
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.
Though the Russians claim Wallenberg died
in a Soviet prison, two years later, reports
from numerous witnesses indicate he may have
been alive many decades later.
Despite efforts by his family, the U.S., Sweden
and other countries to discover the truth,
Wallenberg has yet to be found.
All around the world people continue to honor
him, in recognition of his courage and his
struggle for human rights.]
