Tom Lantos

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Thomas Peter Lantos (born Tamás Péter Lantos; February 1, 1928 – February 11, 2008) was an American politician who served as a representative of San Mateo County and a portion of southwestern San Francisco, California's northern two-thirds.

Lantos had already announced in early January 2008 that he would not seek re-election due to esophagus cancer.

He died before finishing his term.

Lantos, a Hungarian-American who died in the House of Representatives, was the first Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Lantos "devoted his public life to shining a light on the dark corners of oppression." He used his celebrity to spark the interest of world leaders and the general public alike." Bono, the lead singer of U2's, called him a "prizefighter" because his stamina would make him run "any amount of rounds with anyone, anywhere" after his death, "to safeguard human rights and common decency."

Its primary aim is to promote, defend, and advocate for internationally recognised human rights.

The Tom Lantos Institute was established in Budapest in 2011 to promote tolerance and support minority groups in central and eastern Europe and around the world.

Early years

Lantos was born in Budapest, Hungary, Tamás Péter Lantos (Hungarian: [pet. lnto]), the son of Anna, a high school English teacher, and Pál Lantos, a banker. His family was heavily involved in education, including an uncle who was a professor at the University of Budapest and a grandmother who was a high school principal. With the Austrian border just 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Budapest, his life in Hungary will change after the Third Reich annexation of Austria in 1938. Lantos recalled this time and a newspaper headline when he was ten years old, "Hitler Marches into Austria." He knew the significance of this invasion even as a young child: he understood it.

The German military invaded Hungary and occupied Budapest, Hungary's capital, six years later, in March 1944. As he was Jewish, Lantos, then 16, he was arrested and moved to a forced labour camp outside of Budapest. He escaped, but was soon captured by the Germans and beaten brutally, and then returned to the labour camp. He returned to Budapest, 40 miles (64 kilometers) away, this time. In a safe house built by Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat, he hid with an aunt.

Lantos joined Wallenberg's network, his long hair and blue eyes, which were physical manifestations of Aryanism, enabled him to work as a courier and distribute food and medicine to Jews in other safe houses. In January 1945, less than a year after being captured Hungary from Nazi rule, Russian military forces went door to door and liberated Budapest from Nazi occupation. Lantos, 17, however, returned home only to find that his mother and other family members had been killed by the Germans, as well as 440,000 other Hungarian Jews, during the previous ten months of their occupation. Wallenberg, who was later credited with saving thousands of other Hungarian Jews, was later credited with helping thousands of other Hungarian Jews.

Lantos referred to some of his experiences in The Last Days (1998), a Academy Award-winning documentary film made by Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation. He often referred to himself as one of Congress' few living representatives who had fought against fascism in his floor addresses as a congressman. Lantos sponsored a bill making Wallenberg an Honorary Citizen of the United States and became a member of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation in 1981. In January 2006, he returned to Hungary and attended a service to honor the Budapest Ghetto's 61st anniversary of liberation. The function was held at the Great Synagogue in Budapest, Europe's biggest synagogue.

Lantos was an undergraduate at the University of Budapest in 1946. He wrote an essay about Franklin D. Roosevelt and was given a scholarship by the Hillel Foundation to study in the United States as a result of his fluent English. He then emigrated to the United States and studied economics at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he earned a B.A. In 1949, I was an M.A. In 1950, there was a time when everything was still in play. He continued his post-graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and earned a Ph.D. in economics in 1953.

Lantos, a Berkeley, Lantos, went on to become a professor of economics at San Francisco State University. He served as a market consultant and television commentator on foreign policy topics for the next several years. He then became a senior advisor to various parts of the United States. Senators from 1980 to the United States Congress, where he served until his death in February 2008. He recounted his youth by recalling his youth by saying in congress, "I will never be able to express fully my profound gratitude to this great country."

Personal and family life

Lantos never lost his Hungarian accent despite being fluent in English. Annette Tillemann (or Tilleman, 1931), then called Agnes Ethel Seymour during his childhood. Her family had managed to flee to Switzerland using Raoul Wallenberg's Swedish passports. After Hungary was liberated, she and her family returned to Budapest, where she and Lantos met again. They married on July 13, 1950, after emigrating to the United States. They were married until his death in 2008. Agnes Ethel Lantos became a naturalized United States citizen on May 17, 1954, under the same name. Annette (formerly Agnes) Lantos is a niece of Jolie Gabor, whose brother Sebastian was Mr. Lantos' father. Having Magda, Zsa Zsa, and Eva Gabor, Jolie's daughters, Annette Lantos' first cousins to Annette Lantos, she was a cousin of Annette Lantos.

Lantos and his wife had two children, Annette Marie and Katrina, and 18 grandchildren, including Levi, an author and energy specialist; Tomicah, a former Democratic presidential speechwriter; and Charity, an opera singer and activist. Annette, the Lantoses' daughter, was married to Timber Dick, a Colorado businessman, until his accidental death in 2008.

Katrina, Lantos' youngest daughter, is married to ambassador and former US Representative Richard Swett, and she ran for office in New Hampshire as a candidate. Lantos regarded himself as a religious Jew.

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Political career and positions

Lantos ran for office in 1980, battling Republican congressman Bill Royer, who had won a 1979 special election after Democrat Leo Ryan was killed in the Jonestown massacre. Lantos defeated Royer by 5,700 votes. He never lost in such close a close election again, and was re-elected 13 times. Lantos gained a reputation as a champion for several human rights causes, such as allowing Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang to testify at a congressional hearing, allowing the company to return the email addresses of two Chinese dissidents to the Chinese government, allowing them to be traced and one sent to prison.

Lantos, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has called for reforms to the country's health-care system, decrease of the national budget deficit, and national debt, as well as the repeal of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. He has resentment against the Social Security privatization drive. He advocated same-sex marriage rights and marijuana for medical use, and was a stead proponent of gun control and adamantly pro-choice.

Lantos was an environmental campaigner, earning high marks from the League of Conservation Voters and other environmental organizations for his legislative work. Thousands of acres were under the protection of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, including Mori Point, Sweeney Ridge, and Rancho Corral de Tierra, which will keep its watersheds and fragile habitats free from development permanently.

Lantos adopted the Iraq War as a child, but from 2006 to present, he distanced himself, making increasingly critical observations about the war's conduct.

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