Congressman Tom Lantos, RIP
Written by Alex on February 11th, 2008Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs committee, died today at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center.
Lantos, 80, was the only Holocaust survivor to ever serve in congress, and had served in the US House of Representatives since 1981. He had announced last month that he would not run for reelection this fall after having been diagnosed with cancer.
Born to a Jewish family in Hungary in 1928, Lantos became part of the resistance movement against the Nazis despite being only 16 when Hungary was invaded in 1944. Only a quarter of Hungarian Jews survived the Holocaust, and Lantos lived largely due to the efforts of Rauol Wallenberg, whose actions closely resembled those of Oskar Schindler, but is less well known because he was murdered by the Soviets shortly after the war ended.
Lantos came to the US in 1947, and earned a PhD from Berkeley in 1953.
If we should remember him for anything, it is this: Tom Lantos loved America. And his long memory of the horrors of the past century gave him a unique view of the raging anti-Americanism that has become so popular throughout much of western Europe in the last several years.
Last June, at the dedication ceremony for the Victims of Communism Memorial, Lantos called out both Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder for their failure to support the United States on the invasion of Iraq:
“[Chirac] should go down to the Normandy beaches. He should see those endless rows of white marble crosses and stars of David representing young Americans who gave their lives for the freedom of France.”
In October, when Dutch parliament members came to Washington to complain to congress about Guantanamo Bay, Lantos reminded them that if not for the United States, they would be a province of Nazi Germany. He also added that “Europe was not as outraged by Auschwitz as by Guantanamo Bay.”
Lantos himself was an opponent of the Bush administration on the prosecution of the war, on Guantanamo, and on most other issues. But he never balked at an opportunity to defend the United States against those that would denigrate it. He recognized that politics stops at the waters edge. He was a great man, and he will be missed in Washington.
MORE: Michelle Malkin has the statement Lantos issued when he announced his retirement from congress:
“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,” Lantos said in a statement. “I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country.”
Rest in peace.
11
PM
As much as we’ll continue to have our little fights, something like this keeps it all perspective. Despite our differences (or perhaps because of them), we do live in the greatest country in the world. Living overseas for awhile has made this more obvious, and definitely sharpened my sense of identity and pride in being an American.
Thanks for writing this.
12
PM
Living overseas can result in only one thing, and that is learning US nationalism is a disease.
12
PM
Secundus…please take the America-hatred elsewhere.
12
PM
Overseas, huh? Please stay there.
12
PM
Yep, I guess there are not many countries out there that enslaved negros until the 60s, institutionaly and with the backing of the supreme court.
Oh I forgot about Apartheid South Africa. But that was different. They did not invent lynching and Jim Crow did not honor them with his presence.
It is too bad Lantos was not born a negro. Because if he did, he would have known what a great country there was back then in 1953 when he earned his PhD.
God Bless America.
Now seriously, Lantos is a well known bigot and a man who supports and calls for violence against other nations. He may have been a holocaust surviver but he often used it to justify more violence and more deaths.
This is not man who inspires others to do good, he is a man who inspires men who commit violence.
13
AM
Um… what are you talking about?
13
PM
Can’t just leave it as “my country is great, I really like it”, can you? It has to be “the greatest in the world.” Are you a very small man who drives a really big car, by any chance?