Tom Lantos died earlier today.
Rep. Tom Lantos, who as a teenager twice escaped from a Nazi-run forced labor camp in Hungary and became the only Holocaust survivor to win a seat in Congress, has died. He was 80.
Spokeswoman Lynne Weil said Lantos, a Californian, died early Monday at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center in suburban Maryland. He was surrounded by his wife, Annette, two daughters, and many of his 17 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Annette Lantos said in a statement that her husband’s life was “defined by courage, optimism, and unwavering dedication to his principles and to his family.”
Lantos, a Democrat who chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee, disclosed last month that he had been diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus. He said at the time that he would serve out his 14th term but would not seek re-election in his Northern California district, which takes in the southwest portion of San Francisco and suburbs to the south including Lantos’ home of San Mateo.
White House press secretary Dana Perino announced the news of Lantos’ death to reporters at a morning briefing and flags were lowered to half-mast at the White House and U.S. Capitol.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, “Tom Lantos was a true American hero. He was the embodiment of what it meant to have one’s freedom denied and then to find it and to insist that America stand for spreading freedom and prosperity to others.”
themiddle
2/11/2008
There a little more about him in a previous post.
froylein
2/11/2008
Sorry, Middle, I forgot to link…
Oyster
2/12/2008
*sigh*
Baruch Dayan Emet.
Tom Lantos, z”l, was a mentsch, and a true hero. We in the Bay Area, for who he served in Congress, shall miss him.