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Feb 27, 2015

Michael WallaceESPN Staff Writer

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ESPN.com NBA reporter

Blogs regularly on the Miami Heat

14 years covering the ACC, SEC, NFL and NBA

MIAMI -- On good days, the worst hurled at Luol Deng in grade school were the racist slurs a Sudanese refugee child was far too young to comprehend yet never quite able to forget.

Samara, meaning black.

Hunga bunga, mockery for ape.

Shakshuka, epithet from a cheap north African meal.

On bad days, those classroom slurs escalated to slinging fists in the schoolyard.

"It was just constant," Deng, a Miami Heat forward, says 25 years later. "I had this one teacher, and as I got older and translated things he used to say, it was racist and hatred stuff he was saying toward me and my brother. A lot of times, we fought because of that stuff."

Yet this was the better life.

This was the safe haven -- the relative oasis -- during the early 1990s in Alexandria, Egypt, where Deng and eight siblings fled without their parents to escape a decades-long civil war in their native Sudan between the Muslim north and Christian south. Luol's father, Aldo Deng, was a Sudanese government official who, according to British media reports, was jailed in 1989 during a violent coup by Muslim rebels who imposed Sharia law.

Released after three months, Aldo and his wife Martha put their children on a plane to sneak to Egypt under the care of the eldest siblings, who would work and live as refugees. Luol's memory is sketchy from those moments at age 4, but he's heard stories of everyone "waking up at night and leaving all of our belongings behind to get onto a plane, hoping and praying they wouldn't figure out who our father was."

Aldo and Martha then escaped to Europe seeking asylum -- a search that ultimately separated the Deng family for five years, connected only by the struggle they endured a continent apart.

So considering what he has survived from birth to the security, wealth and status of being a two-time NBA All-Star with more than a decade of league service, it's easy to pardon Deng for the polite scoff when asked: What did it take to forgive Atlanta Hawks GM Danny Ferry and move on?

" A lot of people experience racism at different times on different terms. It's helped me from a young age to have a tough skin. I've been through a lot where I just look at it and say, 'It's another chapter. We've come out of much worse than this.'"Luol Deng

"It's the life I've been through," said Deng, 29 and the second-youngest among five sisters and four brothers. "A lot of people experience racism at different times on different terms. It's helped me from a young age to have a tough skin. I've been through a lot where I just look at it and say, 'It's another chapter. We've come out of much worse than this.'"

This is the foundation of Deng's resolve.

The strength he draws from having survived way worse has allowed Deng to overcome adversity, be it a devastating civil war that was the backdrop of his childhood, the difficult adjustments in new countries as a refugee or the medical, trust and betrayal issues that rocked his basketball career once he discovered the craft that changed the lives of his family.

Nearly six months have passed since Deng hung up the phone after accepting Ferry's apology for racially charged comments recorded during a front-office conference call in July about free agents. Claiming to have read directly from notes prepared by another team, later reported to be evaluations gathered from Deng's former teams in Cleveland and Chicago, Ferry told other Hawks executives Deng had "some African in him" and tended to be untrustworthy.

"He's a good overall guy, but he's not perfect," Ferry said in a recording uncovered during an internal investigation by the Hawks and the NBA. "He's got some African in him. And I don't say that in a bad way, other than he is a good guy who will do something behind you."

During their conversation in the fall after Deng signed with the Heat instead of the Hawks, Deng challenged Ferry to help make something good come of the racially charged controversy that staggered the NBA just as it recovered from the Donald Sterling fallout months earlier.

Deng's challenge remains a work in progress for both men.

"He could have really belittled Ferry. He would have been very right to say whatever he had to say if he had been angry," said veteran guard Ben Gordon, who entered the NBA with Deng in 2004 as Chicago's first-round draft picks. "But he took the higher road. He didn't allow that situation to bring his character down. He never does. Over and over, his character shows."

A small survey of general managers and league executives believe the private criticism of Deng from the reports Ferry received were largely the product of friction that accompanied his Chicago departure and the dysfunction on some levels that existed in Cleveland last season.

Soon after he arrived in the trade to Cleveland, Deng confronted a New York reporter who wrote an article that cited "one close friend" of Deng's who detailed the player's alleged frustrations with the practice habits and attitudes of some Cavaliers players and coaches.

One Eastern Conference executive said the entire Ferry situation was "unfortunate" but that there are times when candid internal discussions about players on the market can get petty.

"Feelings get touchy in those rooms when it comes to free agency, the draft, trades -- on our side, the players' side and agents," the team executive said. "That's the business. There are people who sometimes say things that are emotional. Danny made a mistake. It's over and done. Other than that, I've never heard anyone say anything wrong about Luol's character."

Deng can forgive because he never forgets. The sage advice from his father and lessons learned from having grown up across the globe are guiding principles. There weren't many phone calls between Aldo and Luol that didn't end with a version of the family's vision statement: Relinquish resentment, then grasp opportunities to help your people.

"Maybe there's a purpose that God made this happen," Deng said. "Maybe there's a reason that I was put in front of this, to be in front and bring people together. At the end of the day, someone somewhere is going to benefit from it. That's the way I look at it, as God's purpose."

Ferry remains on administrative leave, exiled from the remarkable team he assembled. He has met repeatedly with civic officials, former NBA players and executives but has denied interview requests through the Hawks. Atlanta is off to its best start in franchise history, is first in the Eastern Conference standings and had four players in this month's All-Star Game, led by Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer. Meanwhile, Deng emerged with all-star visions of a different sort.

Masai Ujiri could have remained quiet or confined his feelings to their private conversation.

The Toronto Raptors general manager was among the first league executives to speak with Ferry. But for Ujiri, this was not only a painfully personal situation; it was also a moment to educate.

And to vent.

A native of Nigeria, Ujiri wrote an 871-word essay in Toronto's "Globe and Mail" newspaper in September that questioned Ferry's methods, defended Deng's character and pleaded for progress.

But at the heart of the essay is Ujiri's recollection of an NBA-sponsored camp Deng attended in Rwanda as he was struggling to regain his health from a spinal tap. As the most accomplished active NBA player from the continent, canceling was not an option for Deng.

"He had gone through London and Angola and came to Rwanda sick as a dog," Ujiri said. "We told him to take the morning session off, because he was coughing and you could tell he was sick and tired from all of the traveling. Well that morning, he was the first one up. He was the most energetic in camp. And right after the camp, he passes out for a couple of hours."

Deng was then expected to miss the evening dinner with sponsors and dignitaries.

"Luol shows up," Ujiri said. "That's the person he is. Luol has just been phenomenal with that and carrying that torch for us. He's carrying the NBA on his shoulders all over the world."

Ujiri believes Deng has the humility and basketball pedigree of Hakeem Olajuwon, the humanity and political awareness of Manute Bol and philanthropic restlessness of Dikembe Mutombo.

"It was a part of me before basketball," Deng said. "It'll be a part of me after basketball is over."

Amadou Gallo Fall knew that connection with Deng was strong well before the call was placed. Deng was in California, where he and the Heat were on a five-game trip, and the dispatch was answered by Fall on the other side of the globe in London.

The conversation quickly shifts to Johannesburg.

"This is going to be monumental," said Fall, NBA vice president for development in Africa. "A historic moment on the continent."

That's precisely what Deng had in mind.

A month before recordings surfaced of Ferry's disparaging comments, league officials had already publicized plans in August for an exhibition game in Africa. Those plans were confirmed during All-Star Weekend in New York by commissioner Adam Silver, who announced the NBA Africa game will be played Aug. 1 in Johannesburg.

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The project has taken on added meaning in the aftermath among many players, league executives and ambassadors who want to showcase that -- yes -- the NBA has a proud and significant bit of African in it. Those aspirations have placed Fall at the center of the healing and reconciliation efforts. It was Fall who coordinated Ferry's trip to Senegal in December to help work a camp for 60 kids at a time when Ferry was taking his first private steps to amend his mistake.

"For me, it's positive all around," Fall said of how Ferry and Deng have worked to move beyond the incident. "We are in a great league that is very inclusive and very progressive ... and we look forward to working with all of our people."

While Fall works behind the scenes on the final details to bring nearly two dozen NBA players to South Africa for an All-Star-style showcase, Deng has been recruiting to attract top players.

Among the plans for the first NBA-sanctioned game on the continent are to have an NBA Africa team of players such as Deng, Oklahoma City's Serge Ibaka, Minnesota's Gorgui Dieng, Atlanta's Thabo Sefolosha and Los Angeles' Steve Nash to play an NBA Global team of other league stars.

"Luol's really staying involved, staying in contact, never forgetting where he's come from, and those attributes have helped tremendously in our efforts to grow the sport on the continent," Fall said. "His passion on the court is the same as the passion he has off the floor. He's driven, almost like to pay it forward. Having him right there on the forefront, talking about it and making sure his friends and colleagues around the league are aware of it makes my life easier."

Said Deng: "There are so many kids in Africa who adore these athletes in the NBA and see themselves in them, even though we're so far removed. In Africa, kids don't look at black athletes and say, 'They're different from us.' They look at them and say, 'That can be me.'"

Deng's family learned the game while living in Egypt from late NBA center Manute Bol, a Sudan native who returned to the region during offseasons to aid humanitarian efforts. Bol trained Luol's older brother Ajou, a 6-foot-11 prospect who played college ball at UConn and Fairfield. An older sister, Arek, played forward at Maryland and Delaware.

There's a similar lineage that links Hall of Fame candidate and former NBA defensive stalwart Dikembe Mutombo to Ibaka, both natives of the Congo. When Nigeria-born Hakeem Olajuwon was selected No. 1 out of Houston in 1984, it opened an entire continent to NBA possibilities.

At least 35 players with ties to Africa have played in the NBA over the past 30 years. Since 2003, the NBA has established facilities or camps in 15 countries on the continent, and as many as three games a week are broadcast on TV in 55 African markets. Deng and Ibaka are among the early beneficiaries of that exposure who are now benefactors.

"We have responsibilities to follow that tradition," said Ibaka, in his sixth year with Oklahoma City. "Those guys, we followed them. Now we lead, so others follow us. This means the tradition will continue into the future and keep going. It shows the game in Africa is growing up."

Like Deng, Ibaka has used his status and platform to bring awareness to issues affecting Africa. In January, Ibaka used his Twitter account to express sympathy for the victims and families of the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks in France. Some players, including Portland's Nicolas Batum and Washington's Kevin Seraphin, showed support by wearing T-Shirts in pregame warm-ups.

Ibaka also posted on Twitter that he wished "the world and media reacted the same way" to raise awareness of the Boko Haram massacres that have ravaged Nigeria for months.

Deng and Ibaka believe it's vital to make a social impact with their play and their platforms. Ibaka is set to star in a Grantland-produced documentary, to be released in March, that traces his journey from the Congo to the NBA and highlights multiple charity efforts in the region. Deng, who won the NBA's Citizenship Award in 2014, has established foundations on three continents that include basketball camps for girls in London, food distribution programs in Africa and community holiday programs in Chicago.

"It's all part of it," Deng said. "I just feel like we're in 2015 and there are still so many [negative] things being said about Africa. But there's so much greatness that people are missing. I just feel that while I'm here -- it's really part of why I exist -- I can really bring some attention toward it."

Deng was born in 1985, two years after the bloodiest battles of the Sudanese civil war resumed and two years before the deadly migration of the Lost Boys, the estimated 20,000 youths who fled as far as 1,000 miles on foot to Ethiopia to avoid capture and becoming child soldiers.

After moving from Sudan to Egypt for five years, Deng and his siblings were reunited with their parents in South London, where Aldo Deng's petition for asylum was granted in 1993. A few years later, 14-year-old Luol was at New Jersey's Blair Academy after following older siblings to the U.S. in pursuit of an American education and college basketball opportunities.

"He struggled to adjust early," said Charlie Villanueva, a Dallas Mavericks forward who was Deng's prep school roommate at Blair. "What he experienced was very traumatic, very hard. He would put it behind, but there were times here and there when it would come up. He tried to be quiet and to himself. But if you kept plucking at him, he would open up."

One watershed moment broke the ice for Deng at Blair.

"Ask him the story about the squirrel," Villanueva said before he launched into a re-enactment.

"He comes busting down the hallway, yelling, because a squirrel got in through his window," Villanueva said as he wildly swung his arms to mimic Deng sprinting from his dorm room during junior year. "Knowing Lu, it was hilarious to see him like that. But the real funny part is, he went back in there after he calmed down and tried to set a trap. He had blankets, boxes, sticks. The next few days, he actually thought he was going to catch the squirrel if it ever came back."

Those awkward days are long gone for Deng now, Villanueva insists.

They both developed into two of the nation's top prep players, with Deng becoming a McDonald's All American and eventually rising to the No. 2-ranked prospect behind LeBron James in the 2003 class. While James jumped directly from high school to the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, Deng spent one season at Duke before he was selected seventh overall in 2004.

The squirrel story revealed at least one thing about Deng's character that hasn't changed since high school, Villanueva said. He regroups strongly in the face of stunning challenges.

"There are some sensitive topics for Lu," Villanueva said. "But his heart is pure. No bad intentions at all."

Ask Deng to describe the biggest challenge to his survival and his answer might surprise.

He won't mention, when as a toddler in Sudan, being taught to seek cover under his bed at the sound of gunfire. He'll also bypass those beatings at school in Egypt. And it's not even that time the Bulls' plane caught fire and lost two engines amid an emergency landing two years ago. Instead, it was in a hospital as his body failed him and his faith waned in Chicago's medical staff, a feeling that lingers among some Bulls players.

An established All-Star who twice led the league in minutes as one of the NBA's premier two-way players, Deng helped transition the Bulls from their prolonged struggles after the Michael Jordan era and transformed them into a conference title contender in his decade there.

"He gave us everything he had," Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said of Deng. "I have a great appreciation for all he did for our team. He helped lift some of those teams out of the lottery."

Deng's work ethic and attention to the minor details of maintaining his health were as relentless in Chicago as the wintry winds blowing in off Lake Michigan. His off day or pre-practice workouts influenced teammates. His routine of eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at halftime of games for a protein boost was the source of locker room jokes but ultimately respected. Gradually, questions surfaced as to whether Deng was run into the ground under Thibodeau's rigid defensive system and heavy minutes load for starters.

Derrick Rose, who has endured his own medical issues in Chicago through three major knee injuries over four seasons, said Deng's guidance has been invaluable.

"It's becoming a pro, taking care of your body -- little things you wouldn't think about," Rose said recently. "I wish I would have looked at him a little bit more when I was a rookie."

By the end of his time with the Bulls, Deng was just worn down.

Fearing meningitis after Deng became ill heading into the 2013 playoffs, team doctors ordered a spinal tap test, which came back negative. Deng was released from the hospital and cleared to play during Chicago's second-round series against Miami. But Deng continued to feel terrible. Only by going outside the team -- including, according to sources, back-channel help from other teams -- did he discover he had been leaking fluid since the diagnostic procedure.

The entire process called into question why he was ever cleared to play. Citing privacy issues, the Bulls have repeatedly declined media requests to address Deng's condition at the time. But Deng insists it felt like the closest he's ever come to death.

"I've never been in a situation where I was afraid for my life," Deng said. "That's how deep it was. The whole situation, there wasn't trust. There was miscommunication between the team and doctors. I wasn't told the proper procedure to take care of myself. It was just mishandled."

To this day, Deng's medical scare with the Bulls is as difficult to share as any of his tragedy-to-triumph ordeals. Why? Because Deng is attached to Chicago, the city he called home for a decade before he was traded last year to Cleveland after failed negotiations on a new contract.

"It was the hardest place I ever had to leave," Deng said. "I'm not upset I was traded. It happens. That's business. I just wish it was better [at the end]."

He lived in Chicago longer than anywhere else in his life. But it's impossible to completely separate the organization Deng loves from the ordeal he loathes. Well after the playoffs ended that season, Deng still struggled with complications that required repeated hospital visits.

"I still had migraines, was getting dizzy and couldn't eat," Deng recalls. "I lost 14 pounds in 10 days. I kept throwing up. I was eating only like Jell-O for two weeks.

"I remember my friend coming over and was like, 'It's a spinal leak.' My friend was calling the team doctor and her response was like, 'I don't think so.' And my friend told the doctor, 'If you don't do (something), I'm taking him to a different hospital.' So I called my agent and asked for a different hospital."

Deng said more setbacks ensued even after he had the procedure that stopped the fluid leak.

"I finally got diagnosed with asthma, and I never had that in my life," Deng said. "I couldn't work out for months. Most of my summer, I couldn't do anything."

He couldn't do anything except for what he's always done -- repeat the lifelong pattern of picking himself back up, moving on elsewhere and reestablishing productive roots.

Deng turns 30 in April but has the mannerisms, facial wrinkles and wisdom of a man much older.

It's hardly been a comfortable fit in the first year of a two-year, $20 million deal Deng signed with Miami over the summer. There have been highs, like the Christmas showdown with the Cavaliers when he had 25 points, eight rebounds and eight assists to outperform longtime rival James in a win.

And there have been lows, such as the recent stretch when a calf strain sidelined Deng when the desperate Heat were already reeling from Dwyane Wade's third injury absence of the season. When Deng finally got healthy, the team was rocked by the news this month that Chris Bosh would be lost for the remainder of the season after developing blood clots in his lungs.

"I'm not going to lie; it hasn't been easy," Deng said of the Heat's struggles amid a losing record most of the season. "There are days when I leave and I'm like, 'Wow, we've got it.' Then there are days like, 'Well, we still don't.' I've never been on a team where it's such constant change."

Deng's 14.6 points per game are his fewest in six years, and he is also rebounding at a career-low rate. But there have been recent signs of hope, with the Heat winning three of four games since the All-Star break. Taking on more of Bosh's load on offense, Deng has been the team's leading scorer the past two games. Miami is 9-0 when Deng scores at least 20 points.

But Deng has been a steadying presence with his patience, perspective and pointers since he got to Miami. During a January game against the Clippers, Deng pulled aside Heat point guard Shabazz Napier and told the rookie to listen closely to how Chris Paul runs his team because, "I really believe that can be you one day."

Heat center Hassan Whiteside, a D-League call-up quickly blossoming into one of league's more productive big men, got a similar counseling session from Deng about the relentless work ethic that drove Joakim Noah in Chicago to become last season's defensive player of the year.

Those attributes are partly why Heat president Pat Riley -- whose résumé includes landing James, Shaquille O'Neal and Alonzo Mourning -- said Deng's addition last summer was "one of the most important free-agent signings that we have ever had in the history of the franchise."

Any challenge Deng faces in Miami pales in comparison to difficulties he's forged past throughout life. Gordon has seen Deng get through plenty and emerge stronger. He remembers when Deng had to hastily hire a new representative to close a $71 million extension with the Bulls in 2008 because then-agent Josh Nochimson was being decertified by the union.

Nochimson was sued by another client, former NBA guard Richard Hamilton, for allegedly stealing from his accounts and credit cards. It was a complicated process for Deng, because Nochimson was a classmate and close friend of Deng's older brother while at UConn.

"And that was at a really young age in his career," said Gordon, a reserve with the Orlando Magic who also attended UConn.

So it's no surprise for Gordon to see Deng sort through a turbulent ending in Chicago, a troublesome ordeal with Ferry and a rough start in Miami with determination and dignity.

"I do think it has a lot to do with the way he grew up," Gordon said. "Probably a lot of people he knew and loved didn't survive. Luol is a fighter. When it's time to get in survival mode, he knows how to do it in real-life terms. So when all this other stuff happens, he probably just [laughs] and thinks, 'I've been through way more than this. And if I let this upset me, I'm not remembering where I came from.'"

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Wallace: Luol Deng's path of righteousness

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Feb 27, 2015 Michael WallaceESPN Staff Writer Close ESPN.com NBA reporter Blogs regularly on the Miami Heat 14 years covering the ACC, SEC, NFL and NBA MIAMI -- On good days, the worst hurled at Luol Deng in grade school were the racist slurs a Sudanese refugee child was far too young to comprehend yet never quite able to forget.

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Sport Stars who Happen to be refugees....

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Sport Stars who Happen to be refugees....

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guardian and observer charity appeal 2015

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The sporting stars who were once refugees

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Some of the world's top athletes are all the more remarkable given their journeys from war-torn countries to success on the international stage

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Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding. You cannot subjugate a nation forcibly unless you wipe out every man, woman, and child. Unless you wish to use such drastic measures, you must find a way of settling your disputes without resort to arms.

From a speech to the New History Society (14 December 1930), reprinted in "Militant Pacifism" in Cosmic Religion (1931); also found in The New Quotable Einstein by Alice Calaprice, p. 158.

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Albert Einstein and politics - Wikiquote

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Bolshevism is an extraordinary experiment. It is not impossible that the drift of social evolution henceforward may be in the direction of communism. The Bolshevist experiment may be worth trying. But I think that Russia errs badly in the execution of her ideal. The Russians make the mistake of putting party faith above efficiency.

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On January 31, 1968, Lan Cao's family was living just outside of Saigon, getting ready to celebrate the Lunar New Year of Tet. Instead, her father - a military commander - had to rush off to war.

The North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong had launched a surprise attack on her city and over one hundred other South Vietnamese locations. This became known as the Tet Offensive, and was one of the biggest military campaigns of the Vietnam War, which led to a decline in public support in the United States.

Lan was 7 years old. She and her family would eventually resettle in the US. Lan graduated magna cum laude from Mount Holyoke and earned a law degree from Yale. She's now a professor of international economics law and lives in California.

At StoryCorps, Lan sat down with her teenage daughter, Harlan Van Cao. Harlan was 12 at the time of their interview - just a year shy of the age Lan was when she arrived in the United States. Lan shared what it was like to live under siege before rebuilding her life in America.

Top photo: Harlan Van Cao and her mother Lan Cao at their StoryCorps interview in Westminster, California.

Bottom photo: Lan Cao's passport from the Republic of Vietnam, also known as South Vietnam. Courtesy of Lan Cao.
This interview came through the First Days Story Project, recorded in partnership with WGBH and PBS American Experience. Originally aired February 2, 2018, on NPR's Morning Edition.

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On January 31, 1968, Lan Cao's family was living just outside of Saigon, getting ready to celebrate the Lunar New Year of Tet. Instead, her father - a military commander - had to rush off to war. The North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong had launched a surprise attack on her city and over one hundred other South Vietnamese locations.

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The United States has a long tradition of offering refuge to those fleeing persecution and war. With support, refugees go on to thrive and contribute to their new countries in many different ways. Meet some of the well-known artists, ambassadors, CEOs and other luminaries who were once refugees.

Albert Einstein

"Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding."

The physicist Albert Einstein arrived in America in 1933 after he and thousands of other Jews fled persecution in Nazi Germany. That year, the Nobel laureate and humanitarian called for the founding of the aid organization that was to become the International Rescue Committee.

Although much of the world greeted the Nazi takeover with indifference or apathy, some people were alert to what was happening and the threat it represented. By July 1933, a new rescue committee of 51 concerned individuals had swung into action, galvanized by Einstein.

Freddie Mercury

"I love the fact that I can make people happy, in any form. Even if it's just an hour of their lives, if I can make them feel lucky or make them feel good, or bring a smile to a sour face, that to me is worthwhile."

As the frontman of the rock band Queen, Freddie Mercury (Farrokh Bulsara) is known as one of the most innovative and accomplished musicians of all time. Freddie was born in the British protectorate of Zanzibar, now part of Tanzania. His parents were Parsi immigrants from India. Freddie spent much of his childhood in India, where he attended music school. It was there his friends began to call him Freddie, a name his family also adopted.

In 1964, the family left for England to escape the violence of the Zanzibar Revolution against the island's Arab and Indian minorities. Moving to Middlesex with his family, Freddie, then aged 17, started a new life. Six years later, he befriended his future Queen bandmates, drummer Roger Taylor and guitarist Brian May.

M.I.A.

"As a Sri Lankan that fled war and bombings, my music is the voice of the civilian refugee."

Rapper and activist M.I.A. (Mathangi Arulpragasam) was just nine years old when she fled war-torn Sri Lanka with her family and settled in England. Those experiences inform her music and art, which draw attention to the struggles of refugees and immigrants. She said her debut album Arular was created to "make every refugee kid that came over after me have something to feel good about." In 2015, she made headlines for her self-directed music video, "Borders," which follows refugees on a treacherous journey to find safety.

M.I.A. has contributed to humanitarian causes that include education for children in Liberia, a country recovering from a 14-year civil war.

Marc Chagall

"Despite all the troubles of our world, in my heart I have never given up on the love in which I was brought up or on man's hope in love."

Born in Russia, artist Marc Chagall moved to France in 1910 to study painting. By 1941, he was among 1,500 refugees on the Nazis' "most-wanted" list who were spirited out of France during a rescue effort by the organization that became the IRC.

A pioneer of modernism, Chagall is known for his poetic, colorful, and figurative paintings, earning him recognition as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century." He later contributed a print to the IRC's "Flight" portfolio to help raise money for our humanitarian work.

George Soros

"I chose America as my home because I value freedom and democracy, civil liberties and an open society."

Investor and philanthropist George Soros was born in Hungary in 1930. After surviving the Nazi occupation of WWII, he emigrated to England and then to the U.S., where he launched his own hedge fund. As one of the richest people in the world, Soros used his fortune to launch the Open Society Foundations, a network of organizations that supports human rights in more than 100 countries.

He received the IRC's Distinguished Humanitarian Award in 1993, and our Freedom Award in 2013. In 2016, Soros pledged up to $500 million to support refugee-run businesses and other initiatives that help refugees.

Madeleine Albright

"I think it enriches our country to have refugees here."

In 1997 Madeleine Albright became the first woman to be appointed U.S. Secretary of State. The daughter of a Czech diplomat, she was a refugee during World War II in England, where she lived through the Blitz. Her family returned to Czechoslovakia after the Nazis were defeated, but escaped to the U.S. after the Communist takeover of their country. She arrived on Ellis Island in 1948 at age 11.

Albright was honored with the IRC's Freedom Award in 1998 for her "extraordinary service to humanity, freedom and the cause of refugees." She is currently an IRC Overseer.

Elie Wiesel

"Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must-at that moment-become the center of the universe."

Elie Wiesel was born in what is now Romania. As a teenager he survived the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald and went on write books that bore searing testament to the slaughter of more than 6 million Jews in World War II. Indifference, he said, was the epitome of evil. The author, educator and political activist received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.

In 1987 Wiesel was honored with the IRC's Freedom Award. He was a longtime IRC Overseer.

Gloria Estefan

"You've got to believe. Never be afraid to dream."

Gloria Estefan fled the Cuban Revolution with her family in 1960 after the rise to power of Fidel Castro. They arrived in the U.S. when she was just two years old. Her father was a political prisoner after the Bay of Pigs invasion and later served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam.

The seven-time Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter is known for her activism and philanthropy as well as for chart-topping hits. Estefan and her husband Emilio have received the United States' highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Sergey Brin

"I want to be looked back on as being very innovative, very trusted and ethical and ultimately making a big difference in the world."

Google co-founder Sergey Brin was born in Moscow in 1973. When he was six years old, his family emigrated to the U.S. to escape the growing anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union. At Stanford University he met fellow computer science doctoral student Larry Page. Together they developed a search engine that would grow into an internet giant.

In November 2016, Brin was ranked No. 13 on Forbes' "Billionaires" list. Brin's and Google's philanthropy includes support for the cause of refugees.

Superman

"I'll always be there. Always. It's not the powers. Not the cape. It's about standing up for justice. For truth. As long as people like you are out there, I'll be there. Always."

Rocketed to Earth from the dying planet Krypton, baby Kal-El was found by a Kansas couple who named the boy Clark Kent and raised him as their own. Discovering his enormous powers, they instilled in him strong moral values-and inspired him to become a hero.

Kal-El- Superman -was created by comic book artist Joe Shuster and writer Jerry Siegel, both the sons of Jewish immigrants. A universal icon, Superman is both an alien trying to help the planet that gave him refuge and an all-American boy fighting the never-ending battle for truth and justice.

Meet more famous refugees

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Josef Albers, Artist

Hannah Arendt, Philosopher and Author

Mikhail Baryshnikov, Dancer

Max Beckmann, Artist

Hans Bethe, Physicist and Nobel Laureate

W. Michael Blumenthal, Former Secretary of Treasury, IRC Overseer

Nadia Comaneci, Olympic gymnast

Salvador Dali, Artist

The Dalai Lama, Leader-in-exile and Nobel Laureate

Peter Drucker, Author and Management Consultant

Max Ernst, Artist

Lion Feuchtwanger, Author

Andy Garcia, Actor

Alexander Ginsburg, Russian dissident during the Cold War

Roberto Goizuetta, Former CEO of Coca Cola

Walter Gropius, Artist

George Grosz, Artist

Andrew S. Grove, Chairman of Intel Corp., IRC Overseer

Henry Grunwald, former Editor-in-Chief, Time Inc.,

John Heartfield, Artist

Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Buddhist Master

Wassily Kandinsky, Artist

Henry Kissinger, Former Secretary of State, IRC Overseer

John G. Kemeny, Computer pioneer and President of Dartmouth College from 1970-81

Andre Kertesz, Photographer

Oskar Kokoschka, Artist

Madeleine Kunin, former U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland, former Governor of Vermont

Mila Kunis, Actress

Tom Lantos, U.S. Congressman (Calif)

Fernand Leger, Artist

Jacques Lipchitz, Artist

Andre Masson, Artist

Andre Meyerhoff, Scientist and Nobel Laureate

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Architect

Rita Ora, Singer

Dith Pran, Photographer

Gen. John Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Author

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The United States has a long tradition of offering refuge to those fleeing persecution and war. With support, refugees go on to thrive and contribute to their new countries in many different ways. Meet some of the well-known artists, ambassadors, CEOs and other luminaries who were once refugees.

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Dr. Albright is a Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. She chairs the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and serves as president of the Truman Scholarship Foundation. She serves on the U.S.

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Advertising

Lord Maurice Saatchi and Charles Saatchi - Founders of Saatchi and Saatchi advertising agency. Their father was an Iraqi Jewish refugee.

Architecture

Eva Jircicna - Designed the Faith Zone in the Millennium Dome. Refugee from Czechoslovakia.

Daniel Marot - Architect, furniture designer and engraver who designed Hampton Court Palace. Huguenot refugee.

Peter Moro - Born in Germany and moved to London, becoming one of the UK's most prominent post-war architects. Designed the Royal Festival Hall and the Nottingham Playhouse.

Richard Rogers - Designer of the Centre Pompidou and the Millennium Dome. His mother was a refugee from Trieste.

Art

Frank Auerbach - German-born British painter, considered one of the world's greatest living artists.

Marc Chagall - Russian-French artist of Belarusian Jewish origin.

Jacob Epstein - British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. Son of Polish-Jewish refugees.

Peter Carl Fabergé - Russian jeweller, fled Russia via Finland, Germany to Switzerland.

Lucien Freud - Well-known British painter, German-Jewish refugee.

Mona Hatoum - Well-known British painter, Palestinian-Lebanese refugee.

Anish Kapoor - Won the 1991 Turner Prize. His parents were refugees who fled Iraq.

Camille Pissarro - Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter, Danish-French-Jewish refugee.

Sir John Tenniel - Cartoonist and book illustrator, descended from Huguenot refugees.

Alfred Wolmark - Painter, Polish-Jewish refugee.

Business

Sir Montague Burton - Founded Burton retail, refugee from Lithuania.

Sir John Houblon - First Governor of the Bank of England, grandson of refugees.

Manubhai Madhvani - Expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin.

Michael Marks - One of the founders of Marks and Spencer, Russian refugee.

Sieng van Trang - Founder of the educational website www.iLearn.to, Vietnamese refugee.

George Weidenfeld - Publisher, Jewish refugee who fled the Nazis.

Fashion and Design

Sir Alec Issigonis - Designer of the Mini car, refugee.

Tanya Sarne - Fashion designer and creator of the Ghost label, father was a Russian refugee.

Lewis de Teissier - Founder of Tessier's jewellers, and the grandson of refugee Jaqcues de Teissier.

Alek Wek - Supermodel, fled Sudan with her family.

Manufacturing

Lakshmibhai Pathak - Founder of Patak's, was a Kenyan refugee.

Rashmi Thakrar - Founder of Tilda Rice, Ugandan refugee.

Music and Dance

Bob Marley - Famous musician, fled Jamaica to Miami after being shot during political violence.

Carlos Acosta - Ballet dancer with the Royal Ballet, London, Cuban refugee.

Fritzi Massary - Austrian-Jewish operetta singer, refugee.

Norbert Brainin - Austrian-Jewish violinist, refugee.

Gloria Estefan - Cuban-American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman, father was a Cuban refugee.

Justine Frischmann - Lead singer of Elastica, father was a Hungarian refugee.

Wyclef Jean - Musician, former member of Fugees, Haitian refugee

K'Naan - Hip-hop artist, refugee from Somalia now living in Toronto, Canada.

M.I.A. - English-born singer/ hip-hop artist, part of a Tamil Sri Lankan refugee family.

Mika -Famous singer, fled from Lebanon.

Freddie Mercury - Lead singer of the band Queen, fled to England from Zanzibar in 1964.

Olivia Newton-John - Singer and actress, granddaughter of refugee Max Born.

Rita Ora - Singer, came to the UK as a refugee from Kosovo as baby.

Regina Spektor - Singer, songwriter and pianist. Originally fled Soviet Russia at the age of nine, now based in New York.

Shingai Shoniwa - Lead singer of the Noisettes. British-born daughter of Zimbabwean refugees.

Claude-Michel Schonberg - Composer whose works include Les Misérables and Miss Saigon, son of refugees.

Arnold Schoenberg - Austrian Composer, one of the most important composers in history, fled Europe due to increasing Nazi terror.

Gene Simmons - Member of Kiss, mother was a Holocaust survivor.

Sir Georg Solti - Conductor, refugee.

Robert Stolz - Austrian composer/conductor, refugee.

Oscar Straus - Austrian-Jewish composer, refugee.

Richard Tauber - Austrian-Jewish singer, composer and refugee.

Georg Ritter von Trapp - Father of the Trapp family, whose story inspired The Sound of Music after fleeing Nazi occupied Austria.

Politics

Madeleine Albright - Former U. S. Secretary of State, refugee From Prague.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali - Dutch politician, fled from Somalia.

Sitting Bull - Sioux chief, left America for Canada.

Lord Alf Dubs - Politician, refugee from Prague.

Margaret Hodge - Former British MP and Minister for Children, parents were refugees from Germany.

Michaëlle Jean - A refugee from Haiti- Governor-General of Canada from 2005 to 2010.

Henry Kissinger - American diplomat and political scientist, former US Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, fled from Germany to USA in 1938.

Vladimir Lenin - Soviet leader, refugee who fled to Switzerland.

Friedrick Lessner - Founder member of the Independent Labour Party.

Karl Marx - Political theorist, German refugee.

David Miliband - British MP, son of a Belgian Jewish refugee.

Ed Miliband - Former leader of the Labour Party, son of a Belgian Jewish refugee.

Leon Trotsky - Marxist theorist.

Psychology and Philosophy

Michael Balint - Hungarian Jew, psychoanalyst, fled from Nazis.

Sigmund Freud - Austrian Jew, founded psychoanalysis, fled from Nazis in Austria.

Anna Freud - Psychoanalyst, daughter of Sigmund, fled with him.

Ernest Gellner - Czech-Jewish philosopher, fled from the Nazis.

Stephan Korner - Czech-Jewish philosopher, fled from the Nazis.

Claude Lévi-Strauss - French-Jewish philosopher and anthropologist, French refugee.

Karl Popper - Austrian-Jewish philosopher, fled from Nazis to New Zealand.

Religion

Isaac Abravanel - Rabbi and politician, fled from Portugal to Spain.

Rabbi Leo Baeck - Reform Rabbi, holocaust survivor.

Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits - Chief rabbi of Great Britain, fled from the Nazis to Britain.

Jesus - His family fled from the holy land because of King Herod.

Current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso - refugee, he fled Tibet when China invaded.

Rabbi Hugo Gryn - Reform rabbi and holocaust survivor.

Paul Kahle - Christian Hebraist, fled from the Nazis to Britain.

Mullah Krekar - Iraqi Kurdish mullah, lives in Norway.

Muhammad (PBUH) - Fled from Mecca to Medina in 577.

Science

Gustav Victor Rudolf Born - pharmacologist, German-Jewish refugee.

Max Born - Winner of Nobel prize for physics, German-Jewish refugee.

Edith Bulbring - Pharmacologist, German-Jewish refugee.

Carl Djerassi - The inventor of the first contraceptive pill, Austrian refugee.

John Dollond - Inventor of the achromatic lens, founder of Dollond and Aitchison, descended from Huguenot refugees.

Albert Einstein - One of the world's most famous scientists, German-Jewish refugee.

Alexander Grothendieck - Mathematician, German-Jewish refugee.

Robert Fano - Physicist, Italian-Jewish refugee.

Ugo Fano - Physicist, Italian-Jewish refugee.

Bernard Katz - Nobel Prize-winning biophysicist, German-Jewish refugee.

Sir Hans Krebs - Nobel Prize-winning scientist, German-Jewish refugee.

Sir John Krebs - Zoologist, son of Sir Hans Krebs.

Sir Harold Kroto - Nobel-winning chemist, son of German-Jewish refugees.

Liviu Librescu - Physicist, fled from Romania to Israel.

Lord (Claus) Moser - British professor of statistics and head of the Government Statistical Service, Austrian-Jewish refugee.

Sport

Alexander Alekhine - Chess World Champion, moved from Communist Russia to France.

Ossip Bernstein - Chess grandmaster, escaped from Communist Ukraine to France.

Efim Bogoljubow - Chess grandmaster, moved from the Soviet Union to Germany.

Fedor Bohatirchuk - Chess grandmaster, moved from Ukraine to Canada.

Jelena Dokic - Tennis player, Serbian refugee.

Mebrahtom Keflezighi - Olympic marathon silver medallist, Eritrean refugee to US

Lomana LuaLua - Football player who has played for Colchester United, Newcastle United and Portsmouth, was a refugee.

Mario Stanic - Former footballer with Chelsea. He used to play for Sarajevo F.C. who were targeted during the Bosnian War.

Christopher Wreh - Former Arsenal footballer, Liberian refugee.

TV and Film

Jackie Chan - Fled to the US from Hong Kong after being threatened with death by the Triads.

Zohra Daoud - Former Afghani actress and model, now settled in Malibu, California.

Marlene Dietrich - Actress and refugee from Nazi Germany.

Omid Djalili - Comedian and actor, he and his family are Iranian refugees.

Ben Elton - Comedian, grandson of a Czechoslovakian refugee.

Baron Lew Grade - Television mogul and uncle of Michael Grade, was a Russian refugee.

Fritz Lang - Film director, and a half-Jewish refugee.

Jerry Springer - Talk show host, parents were German refugees.

Rachel Weisz - Actress, both parents are Jewish refugees.

Billy Wilder - Film director and writer, Jewish refugee.

Writing and Publishing

Reinaldo Arenas - Cuban novelist, became a refugee in the USA after years of persecution for his sexuality and political ideas. His autobiography, Before Night Falls, was on the New York Times list of the ten best books of the year 1993 and was made into a film in 2000.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown - Journalist and author, Ugandan refugee.

Isabel Allende - Author of The House of Spirits, Chilean refugee who fled after receiving death threats following the overthrow of her father's cousin, Salvador Allende.

Hannah Arendt - one of the most influential political philosophers of the twentieth century. Born into a German-Jewish family, she was forced to leave Germany in 1933.

Elias Canetti - Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981, Bulgarian refugee.

Joseph Conrad - Author of Heart of Darkness, refugee.

Anne Frank - German-born diarist, as a child she fled from Nazi Germany to the Netherlands.

Karen Gershon - A writer and poet, as a child she fled from Nazi Germany to Great Britain.

Michael Hamburger - A noted British Translator and Poet, as a child he fled from Nazi Germany to London.

Lord Paul Hamlyn CBE - The founder of Octopus Publishing Group, Jewish refugee from Germany.

Victor Hugo - Author of Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, due to his political beliefs, he was forced to flee France several times.

Ismail Kadare - A winner of the Booker prize who fled Albania in 1990 for political reasons.

Marina Lewycka - Author whose first book, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, sold over a million copies worldwide.

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - Novelist and film screenwriter, German-Jewish refugee.

Judith Kerr - Children's writer, German-Jewish refugee.

Thomas Mann - Winner of the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature, moved from Germany to Switzerland and from there to the US.

Rigoberta Menchú - An author and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, Guatemalan refugee.

Vladimir Nabokov - Russian author and lepidopterist, escaped to Europe from the Russian Civil War and then to the US from the advance of Nazi Germany.

Ursula Owen - Editor of Index on Censorship, was a German refugee as a baby.

John O'Donnell-Rosales - Cuban author, poet and journalist, escaped from Cuba with the remnants of his family after years of persecution for their political and religious views.

Felix Salten - Author of Bambi, Hungarian-born Jewish refugee from Nazis.

Loung Ung - A survivor of the Killing Fields of Cambodia, activist and author of the books First They Killed My Father and Lucky Child.
See our Literature section for a comprehensive list of refugee authors
Miscellaneous

Ossip Bernstein - Chess player, fled from Russia to France.

Alina Fernandez - Daughter of Fidel Castro, fled Cuba to Spain , now lives in the United States. Former model, now hosts a talkshow.

Otto Kahn-Freund - Lawyer, German Jew who fled Nazi Germany to the UK.

Christoph Meili - Whistleblower, fled from Switzerland to the US because an arrest warrant was issued against him.

Merhan Karimi Nasseri - An Iranian refugee who lived in the departure lounge of Terminal One in Charles de Gaulle Airport from 1988 to 2006. Subject of the Steven Spielburg film 'The Terminal'.

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Famous or not, refugees bring much more than their belongings with them to their new countries. Here's a list of public figures you might not know were refugees (or children of refugees). If you know of someone who should be included in this list, get in touch.