1. Tatiana Rusesabagina is a Rwandan woman who, with her husband Paul Rusesabagina, survived in Hotel des Mille Collines during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and saved over a thousand people from being murdered.
12 Facts About Tatiana Rusesabagina
1. 2.
Tatiana Rusesabagina's parents were Tutsi and they raised her Catholic.
3.
Tatiana Rusesabagina trained to be a nurse and moved to Ruhengeri.
4.
Tatiana Rusesabagina had two children with Paul: a son, Tresor, and a daughter, who died a few days after birth.
5.
When Tatiana Rusesabagina was working as a nurse, she faced discrimination because of her Tutsi ethnicity.
6.
Paul was initially at the hotel himself, and later had Tatiana Rusesabagina come to the hotel for safety with the children.
7.
Tatiana Rusesabagina tried to smuggle them out of the country hidden in a truck that would take them to the airport, but the militia figured out their plan.
8.
Tatiana Rusesabagina was a specific target of brutal beatings because the militia knew that she was Tutsi.
9.
Once they were able to leave the hotel, Paul and Tatiana Rusesabagina went to a refugee camp to begin looking for family.
10.
Tatiana Rusesabagina's father had forged all of her family's identification cards to say that they were Hutu, but the militia were able to uncover their Tutsi identity.
11.
Tatiana Rusesabagina was portrayed by Sophie Okonedo in the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda, who was nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
12.
Tatiana Rusesabagina met with Okonedo before filming began to share details of her life.