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Holocaust Survivor Rep. Tom Lantos Dies

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 12, 2008

WASHINGTON - Rep. Tom Lantos, who escaped the Nazis and grew up to become a forceful voice for human rights around the world, has died. He was 80.

The California Democrat, the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, died early Monday at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland. He disclosed last month that he had cancer of the esophagus.

Lantos, who chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was serving his 14th term in Congress.

Lantos, who called himself "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 being taken under the protection of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who used his official status to save thousands of Hungarian Jews. Lantos' mother and much of his family perished in the Holocaust.

"Tom Lantos was a true American hero" and "a dear, dear friend," said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The Associated Press

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