Rep. Tom Lantos Dies
Lantos Was The Only Holocaust Survivor To Serve In Congress
Lantos, who referred to himself as "an American by choice," was born to Jewish parents in Budapest, Hungary, and was 16 when Adolf Hitler occupied Hungary in 1944. He survived by escaping twice from a forced labor camp and coming under the protection of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who used his official status and visa-issuing powers to save thousands of Hungarian Jews.
Lantos turned 80 on Feb. 1.
Lantos' mother and much of his family died in the Holocaust.
I disagreed with Tom Lantos on just about everything, including the correct time of day, but I never questioned his sincerity or his integrity. It wasn't that Rep. Lantos and I were friends or even that aware of each other personally, but we did talk and faced off in different meetings and hearings. He liked to dislike me and my kind and as I returned the favor, we'd both smile and continue on our paths. He was elected and I was not. He played a much larger role in the pageantry of Washington, but I knew the steam tunnels and how to get documents that some didn't want anyone to have. We were not equals. I just helped my boss be at least as equal, if not more. If I said black, he’d say white, but I liked and respected him as a person.
Tom Lantos had seen the face of the beast and he knew the beast had many faces. He knew that what he saw as a child was still occurring in the gulags of the USSR and the current Russia, in the communist horrors of China and Southeast Asia and the dark continent of Africa. He knew the beast had many faces, many complexions and many justifications, but Lantos fought back with knowledge that only a survivor could possess.
I hope that as his family surrounded him he also saw and was welcomed by those that went too fast before him.
