On  World Refugee Week, we take a look at personalities forced out of their  countries, who went on to make it big on the global stage.
Albert Einstein, physicist.
Home country: Germany
His  name has practically become synonymous with "genius," and almost anyone  on the street can name Einstein's most famous discovery, his theory of  relativity -- even if they can't explain what it is. Hitler's rise to  power forced the professor to flee his native Germany in 1933 and accept  a teaching post at Princeton, where he stayed until his death in 1955.
The Dalai Lama, religious leader.

Home country: Tibet.
The  Political and Spiritual leader of Tibet has been living outside his  homeland since the Chinese army brutally put down a nationalist uprising  in 1959. The Dalai Lama turned the northern Indian city of Dharamsala  into his home base for his travels around the world preaching  compassion, forgiveness and tolerance.
Wyclef Jean, musician.

Home country: Haiti. 
Wyclef  Jean's refugee story inspired his music from the very beginning (his  breakthrough came as part of a group called "The Fugees," after all). He  may have left when he was 9 years old, but his native Haiti is never  far from his mind. His urgent tweets appealing for aid helped raise  millions after 2010's devastating earthquake, and Wyclef even flirted  with a Haitian Presidential bid.
Alek Wek, fashion model.

Home country: Sudan
These  days, Alek Wek is one of the most sought-after models for the runways  and photo spreads of the fashion world. But her life wasn't always  filled with designer labels and star-studded galas. Wek's family fled  southern Sudan for the U.K. when she was 14 to escape a brutal civil  war. Six years later she became the first African model to grace the  cover of Elle Magazine.
Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State.

Home country: Germany
He's  best known for serving as America's top diplomat, but the man who  negotiated the end to the Vietnam War and helped send Nixon to China was  actually born overseas. A teenage Heinz Alfred Kissinger and his family  fled Nazi persecution in 1938.
Marlene Dietrich, actress.

Home country: Germany
One  of the original superstars of the Silver Screen, the gender-bending  Dietrich shot to worldwide fame as the cabaret singer Lola-Lola in the  1930 film The Blue Angel. She fled Nazi Germany (and later become a  prominent celebrity spokeswoman of U.S. War bonds), and went on to be  named one of the Top Ten film stars of all time by the American Film  Institute.
M.I.A., musician.

Home country: Sri Lanka
Born  in London to Tamil parents, M.I.A.'s family returned to their native  Sri Lanka when she was an infant. Her father's political activism in  favor of a Tamil homeland forced the family into hiding, and her early  years were marked by the violence of the Sri Lankan civil war. The  escalation of the conflict forced her mother to bring the family back to  London when she was 11.
Sigmund Freud, psychoanalyst.

Home country: Austria
The  father of psychoanalysis, Freud is probably best known for his work on  the unconscious (hence the term "Freudian slip,") and a short-lived  belief in the healing powers of cocaine. He spent most of his life in  Vienna, as part of the city's rich pre-Nazi Jewish intellectual  community, but was forced to flee in 1938. His four sisters died in  concentration camps.
Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State.

Home country: Czechoslovakia
The  first woman to head the State Department was born in Prague. Albright's  parents converted from Judaism to Roman Catholicism before they fled to  London ahead of World War II. Albright even starred as a child refugee  in a wartime film aimed at promoting sympathy for all war refugees
Nadia Comaneci, Olympic gymnast.

Home country: Romania.
As  a member of the Romanian Olympic Team, Comaneci won worldwide acclaim  when she became the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 at the 1976  summer games. She went on to win five more medals over the course of her  Olympic career, but later defected to the West in the waning days of  the Communist regime. Post-retirement, Comaneci has been active with the  Muscular Dystrophy Association and the Special Olympics (and even took a  turn on Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice).
Andy Garcia, actor.

Home country: Cuba.
He  earned an Academy Award nomination for playing an Italian mobster in  The Godfather III, but Andy Garcia was actually born in Havana, Cuba.  After the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion, a five-year-old Garcia left  Cuba for Miami, where the family set up a successful perfume business.  Garcia speaks out regularly on behalf of Cuban political prisoners and  in favor of democratic change on the island.
Elie Wiesel, author.

Home country: Romania.
Born  to a Romanian Jewish family, Wiesel survived the horrors of Auschwitz  in World War II and eventually settled in the U.S. His memoir Night,  about his time in the camp, has been translated into more than 30  languages, and his work as an activist for peace and forgiveness earned  him the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize.
Luol Deng, basketball player.

Home country: Sudan
The  6-foot-9 Chicago Bulls forward looks right at home on a basketball  court in the Windy City, but his actual home is half a world in Sudan. A  member of the Dinka ethnic group, Deng's family fled the violence of  the Sudanese Civil War and settled in Egypt, and then Britain. It was  another Dinka, ex-NBA star Manute Bol, who taught Deng how to play the  game. Bol clearly did well by his student: Deng was the Bulls'  third-leading scorer this past season behind teammates Derrick Rose and  Carlos Boozer
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