Tweet
REP. LANTOS DIES; SURVIVED HOLOCAUST
By Sean Lengell
Washington Times
http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art icle?AID=/20080211/NATION/951072527/1001
Feb 11 2008
DC
Rep. Tom Lantos of California, a longtime advocate of human and civil
rights causes and the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress,
has died. He was 80.
Mr. Lantos died early this morning at Bethesda Naval Medical Center
due to complications from cancer. He was surrounded by his wife of
57 years, Annette, two daughters, and many of his 18 grandchildren
and two great-grandchildren.
Mr. Lantos, a Democrat who represented his San Francisco area district
for 27 years, announced last month he was diagnosed with cancer of
the esophagus and would not seek re-election in November.
He said at the time; "It is only in the United States that a penniless
survivor of the Holocaust and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground
could have received an education, raised a family, and had the
privilege of serving the last three decades of his life as a Member
of Congress. I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt
gratitude to this great country."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who also represents a San Francisco area
district and was a longtime friend of Mr. Lantos, said his death was
a "loss for the Congress and for the nation and a terrible loss for
me personally.
"Tom Lantos devoted his life to shining a bright light on dark corners
of oppression," Mrs. Pelosi said. "Having lived through the worst
evil known to mankind, Tom Lantos translated the experience into a
lifetime commitment to the fight against anti-Semitism, Holocaust
education and a commitment to the state of Israel."
Rep. Adam Putnam, chairman of the House Republican Conference, said
Mr. Lantos "brought to this institution a unique sense of purpose
forged by a difficult and very personal struggle on behalf of freedom
and human dignity."
Mr. Lantos became chairman of the powerful House Foreign Affairs
Committee when Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007.
Last fall he moved through his committee a measure that would have
recognized the World War I-era killings of Armenians as a genocide,
something strongly opposed by Turkey. The bill, which was not
supported by many Republicans and the Bush administration, did not
pass the House.
He was a leading advocate among Democrats for the 2002 congressional
resolution authorizing the Iraq war, although later he became a strong
critic of the Bush administration's war strategy.
In 2004, he led the first congressional delegation to Libya in more
than 30 years, meeting personally with Moammar Gadhafi and urging
the Bush administration to show "good faith" to the North African
leader in his pledge to abandon his nuclear weapons programs. Later
that year, President Bush lifted sanctions against Libya.
He was also one of five members of Congress arrested in a protest
outside the Sudanese Embassy in 2006 over the genocide in Darfur.
Mr. Lantos was born in Budapest in 1928 and joined the anti-Nazi
Hungarian underground movement after Germany invaded his native
country when he was 16. He was captured and sent to a forced labor
camp, where he was severely beaten after he tried to escape. He later
successfully escaped, making it to a safehouse in Budapest.
Mr. Lantos came to the United States in 1947 after being awarded a
scholarship to study at the University of Washington in Seattle. In
1950, he married Annette, his childhood sweetheart, with whom he
had managed to reunite after the war. The couple moved to the San
Francisco Bay area so he could pursue a doctorate in economics at
the University of California, Berkeley.
Mrs. Lantos said her husband's life was "defined by courage, optimism,
and unwavering dedication to his principles and to his family."
Mr. Lantos and his wife had two daughters, Annette and Katrina,
who between them had 18 grandchildren. According to Mr. Lantos,
his daughters were following through on a promise to produce a very
large family because his and his wife's families had perished in
the Holocaust.
The date for a public memorial service has not been set.
By Sean Lengell
Washington Times
http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art icle?AID=/20080211/NATION/951072527/1001
Feb 11 2008
DC
Rep. Tom Lantos of California, a longtime advocate of human and civil
rights causes and the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress,
has died. He was 80.
Mr. Lantos died early this morning at Bethesda Naval Medical Center
due to complications from cancer. He was surrounded by his wife of
57 years, Annette, two daughters, and many of his 18 grandchildren
and two great-grandchildren.
Mr. Lantos, a Democrat who represented his San Francisco area district
for 27 years, announced last month he was diagnosed with cancer of
the esophagus and would not seek re-election in November.
He said at the time; "It is only in the United States that a penniless
survivor of the Holocaust and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground
could have received an education, raised a family, and had the
privilege of serving the last three decades of his life as a Member
of Congress. I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt
gratitude to this great country."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who also represents a San Francisco area
district and was a longtime friend of Mr. Lantos, said his death was
a "loss for the Congress and for the nation and a terrible loss for
me personally.
"Tom Lantos devoted his life to shining a bright light on dark corners
of oppression," Mrs. Pelosi said. "Having lived through the worst
evil known to mankind, Tom Lantos translated the experience into a
lifetime commitment to the fight against anti-Semitism, Holocaust
education and a commitment to the state of Israel."
Rep. Adam Putnam, chairman of the House Republican Conference, said
Mr. Lantos "brought to this institution a unique sense of purpose
forged by a difficult and very personal struggle on behalf of freedom
and human dignity."
Mr. Lantos became chairman of the powerful House Foreign Affairs
Committee when Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007.
Last fall he moved through his committee a measure that would have
recognized the World War I-era killings of Armenians as a genocide,
something strongly opposed by Turkey. The bill, which was not
supported by many Republicans and the Bush administration, did not
pass the House.
He was a leading advocate among Democrats for the 2002 congressional
resolution authorizing the Iraq war, although later he became a strong
critic of the Bush administration's war strategy.
In 2004, he led the first congressional delegation to Libya in more
than 30 years, meeting personally with Moammar Gadhafi and urging
the Bush administration to show "good faith" to the North African
leader in his pledge to abandon his nuclear weapons programs. Later
that year, President Bush lifted sanctions against Libya.
He was also one of five members of Congress arrested in a protest
outside the Sudanese Embassy in 2006 over the genocide in Darfur.
Mr. Lantos was born in Budapest in 1928 and joined the anti-Nazi
Hungarian underground movement after Germany invaded his native
country when he was 16. He was captured and sent to a forced labor
camp, where he was severely beaten after he tried to escape. He later
successfully escaped, making it to a safehouse in Budapest.
Mr. Lantos came to the United States in 1947 after being awarded a
scholarship to study at the University of Washington in Seattle. In
1950, he married Annette, his childhood sweetheart, with whom he
had managed to reunite after the war. The couple moved to the San
Francisco Bay area so he could pursue a doctorate in economics at
the University of California, Berkeley.
Mrs. Lantos said her husband's life was "defined by courage, optimism,
and unwavering dedication to his principles and to his family."
Mr. Lantos and his wife had two daughters, Annette and Katrina,
who between them had 18 grandchildren. According to Mr. Lantos,
his daughters were following through on a promise to produce a very
large family because his and his wife's families had perished in
the Holocaust.
The date for a public memorial service has not been set.