2005 Wallenberg Lecture: Paul Rusesabagina

The Wallenberg Medal and Lecture honors the legacy of U-M graduate Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who saved the lives of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews near the end of World War II. Raoul Wallenberg graduated from U-M’s College of Architecture in 1935. In 1944, at the request of Jewish organizations and the American War Refugee Board, the Swedish Foreign Ministry sent Wallenberg on a rescue mission to Budapest. Over the course of six months, Wallenberg issued thousands of protective passports and placed many thousands of Jews in safe houses throughout the besieged city. He confronted Hungarian and German forces to secure the release of Jews, whom he claimed were under Swedish protection, and saved more than 80,000 lives.
U-M awards the Wallenberg Medal annually to those who, through actions and personal commitment, perpetuate Wallenberg’s own extraordinary accomplishments and human values, and demonstrate the capacity of the human spirit to stand up for the helpless, to defend the integrity of the powerless, and to speak out on behalf of the voiceless.
In 2005 the medal was awarded to Paul Rusesabagina.
In 1994 the country of Rwanda descended into madness. In the spring of that year tensions were high due to years of political and economic strife. When President Juvenal Habyarimana died after his plane was shot down on April 6, this ignited longstanding conflict between two ethnic groups, the Hutu and Tutsi. Encouraged by the presidential guard and radio propaganda, an unofficial militia group called the Interahamwe was mobilized. These extremist Hutus began to slaughter the Tutsi population as well as some moderate Hutus. Over the course of 100 days, almost one million people were killed.
In the face of this genocide, one man made a promise to protect the family he loved and in the course of doing his job found the courage to save over 1,200 people. Paul Rusesabagina used his influence and connections as temporary manager of the Hotel des Mille Collines to shelter over 1,200 Tutsis and moderate Hutus from being murdered by the Interahamwe militia. Who is this extraordinary man? “I don’t consider myself a hero. I consider myself as a normal person who did what he had to do, who has done his job.”
When the violence began April 6, Rusesabagina brought his family back to the Hotel des Mille Collines for safety. Though Rusesabagina is a Hutu, and so was safe from the Interahamwe, his wife Tatiana is a Tutsi. He could not escape the war zone with his family without outside help. Theirs was not the only family seeking refuge in the hotel. Beginning on April 7, hundreds of people - most of them Tutsi or Hutu threatened by Interahamwe supporters - took shelter at this luxury hotel in central Kigali owned by Sabena Airlines. Although set apart from city streets by its spacious, well-groomed grounds, the hotel offered no defense against attack beyond its international connections.
Rusesabagina recognized the value of those connections. On April 15, acting as temporary manager of the hotel, he called for its protection in an interview with a Belgian newspaper. So, too, did an official of Sabena, who spoke on Belgian television. Rwandan authorities responded by posting some National Police at the hotel. In later contacts with the press and others, by telephone calls and fax messages, occupants of the hotel made the Mille Collines a symbol of the fear and anguish suffered by the Tutsi and others during these weeks.
On April 23, a young lieutenant of the Department of Military Intelligence arrived at the hotel at around 6 a.m. and ordered Rusesabagina to turn out everyone who had sought shelter there. Told that he had half an hour to comply with the order, Rusesabagina went up to the roof and saw that the building was surrounded by military and the Interahamwe. He and several of the occupants began telephoning influential people abroad, appealing urgently for help. Rusesabagina explained, ”I only went on doing my job. Doing my work, my responsibility, my day to day duty.” One of the foreign authorities called from the hotel was the Director General of the French Foreign Ministry. Before the half hour had elapsed, a colonel from the National Police arrived to end the siege.
Because of the bravery and leadership of Rusesabagina, none of the people who took shelter at the hotel was killed during the genocide. “I didn’t think about leaving, because all of the people who were in the Mille Collines, they only had hope in me. And leaving them down, it would have been a disaster. And as I told you, sometimes we have to face history.”