Top 8 Famous Refugees (SLIDESHOW)

June 20th was World Refugee Day. Here's our list of some of the most famous refugees ever.

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Albert Einstein: In 1933, Einstein, a prominent German scientist, was accused of treason by the Third Reich. He then sought refuge in the United States.

Know of other famous refugees? Leave your suggestions in the comments section below.

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Comments

[Ondori]

Nikola Tesla!

By far the greatest mind and the creator of the 20th century!

[ArcEnCiel]

Come on huffpo, you might not have his photo but Jesus should have made it on your list; he was a refugee in Egypt...

[ModernTimes1]

Highly debatable occurrence in a biography of a possibly fictional character doesn't qualify.

[getcaption]

Me!!

[LeftLeanWing]

What about the Dalai Lama ?

Probably the most famous refugee still living as a refugee. Or is he in exile ?

[ArcEnCiel]

You are right; Jesus, as well!

[wm1066]

One of the instructors at my college was in a German concentration camp during the war, He was a Gypsey, He taught Languages and he also taught yoga ( this was in the early 70's) and he also knew palmistry, he showed me the break in his life line that correlated with his death camp experience. His name was Vasil Pastueka. A very fine man. America gave him a great life.

[KinkyGirl]

Karl Marx, Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud: three of the brightest men in human history.

[ModernTimes1]

Yes on the first two, but the opinion on Freud has been wavering.

[lazywhiteamerican]

Nina Hagen was an East Berliner who was becoming a star in her teens and basically managed to persuade the authorities that if they did not let her leave to live with her biological father in the west she would become a nuisance as a political protest singer.

[ModernTimes1]

Always loved her voice and attitude.

[pfc1369]

Einstein was never "accused of treason by the Third Reich," and Marx did his major work, freely, in London, not Belgium.

[Furby]

Huffpost doesn't know about wikipedia.

[Palemoon]

I don't think Kissinger belongs on the list, but then, it is a list about FAME and not accomplishments or noteworthiness right?

I was ecstatic to see Marx on the list. But how could you leave off Hannah Arendt, a Jew who had to flee Germany first to France, then to America when France was attacked. She ended up an American citizen and became perhaps our greatest political theorist of the 20th century. I was going to wonder why Ayn Rand wasn't on the list, since she is Russian, but then I remember she came to America by choice in the 1920's?

I agree with bdaved that Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn belongs in a list. Course, he's obviously not very well known in America, but he is pretty famous in other parts of the world. All in all, not a bad list since I realize compromises had to be made in the sake of brevity and to fit within the "Top 8" format.

[ModernTimes1]

Solzhenitsyn is not well known? Perhaps not by the Wii generation.

[Furby]

Nor is Salman Rushdie I suppose.

[bdaved]

Interestingly enough, I've been engaged in a discussion with someone, whose idea of what a refugee is is influenced by her work with Russian-speaking refugees, about Solzhenitsyn's status: he did not flee, he was deported against his will. I don't know what I think about that, but it's an interesting distinction.

[mikefina]

Maybe Solzhenitsyn? Yes, to M.I.A.?? What the hell is going on in this world?

From moral equivalence to stature equivalence (they did call out the 'famous' refugees), this is absurd.

[W i l l]

Lets not forget Arianna Huffington and her escape from the Republicans.

[ModernTimes1]

it was more of a strategic withdrawal.

[Furby]

Indeed.

[mikefina]

Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

[princessk]

Audrey Hepburn's family left Belgium for the Netherlands in 1939, hoping they could escape the German occupation. (They didn't.)

[bdaved]

Rostropovich, Solzhenitsyn, Sharansky, Peter Lorre and about half the cast of Casablanca, Chopin, Chagall, Nabokov, about a gazillion Russian ballet dancers, the Dalai Lama. And Josephine Baker. I don't know. There sure are a lot to choose from, to have come up with the list in the article.

[ModernTimes1]

Josephine Baker was not a refugee.

[bdaved]

If you say so, champ. How 'bout Charlie Chaplin?

[ModernTimes1]

Famous refugees I would put WAY in front of MIA, Esteban and Albright.

Aristotle
Dalai Lama
Moses
Stravinsky
Schoenberg
Bob Marley
Trotsky
Camus
Victor Hugo
Voltaire

[AngieMom57]

And how many of these aforementioned names were Theosophists?

[ModernTimes1]

And who cares.

[amberwaves]

A majority of famous refugees in history are Jews fleeing Hitler? What about the prophet mohammed, martin luther, harriet tubman, frederick douglas, Shah of Iran, Charles deGaul, ....

[ModernTimes1]

Martin Luther was not a refugee. He spent his entire life in Germany.
Neither Douglas nor Tubman were refugees. They never left the country of their nationality.
Shah of Iran went into exile.

[bdaved]

Germany wasn't a single state during Martin Luther's time; the Reformation is proof of that in itself. Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman were both escaped slaves seeking refuge from re-enslavement; I think in a broad sense they could be considered refugees, although today they'd probably be called "internally displaced persons". And such legalese is a fine thing in its place. A lot of refugees go into exile: "the state or period of forced absence from one's country or home;" that's how they get to be refugees.

[derekc06]

weak list..

[AngieMom57]

Think Diffrently...or not, it's all good...About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX9GTUMh490

"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify and vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as crazy, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

[derekc06]

in that there wasn't much diversity of backgrounds... not that most of the people (singers excluded, i think) weren't pretty amazing people...

[mivogo]

The greatest minds of the modern era is a "weak list?"

[bdaved]

Gloria Estefan and M.I.A. are the greatest minds of the modern era?