***** Official Rep. Tom Lantos Memorial Thread *****

[L. Coyote]

Please help build a memorial thread with the details of his work and life,
to serve as a useful reference for those unfamiliar
with his accomplishments and life defending freedom.

Memorial on C-SPAN starting in just minutes:
http://www.c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan_wm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Lantos

Thomas Peter Lantos (February 1, 1928 – February 11, 2008) was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from 1981 until his death, representing the northern two-thirds of San Mateo County and a small portion of southwest San Francisco.

Lantos had announced in early January that he would not run for reelection in 2008 because of cancer of the esophagus.

..... Personal and family life

Born as Lantos Tamás Péter to a Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary, Lantos was part of a resistance movement against the Nazis during the German occupation of Hungary. In his floor speeches, he sometimes referred to himself as one of the few living members of Congress who fought against fascism.

He sought refuge in a safe house established by Raoul Wallenberg; in 1981 Lantos sponsored a bill making Wallenberg an Honorary Citizen of the United States. He moved to the United States in 1947, and spoke with a pronounced Hungarian accent. .....

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GovTrack: Tom Lantos - http://www.govtrack.us/congress/person.xpd?id=400231
Tom Lantos missed 490 of 7054 votes (7%) since Jan 7, 1997. ....

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Tom Lantos | Congress votes database | washingtonpost.com
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/l000090/

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Tom Lantos - Congresspedia
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tom_Lantos

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[sabra]

1. Zichrono Livracha (Hebrew: Of Blessed Memory)

:kick:

[L. Coyote]

2. LIVE NOW to Statuary Hall, Memorial Service

http://www.c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan_wm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS

[meti57b]

3. Tom Lantos, ZL

May his memory be a blessing.

[LeftishBrit]

4. RIP Tom Lantos

[KharmaTrain]

5. He Lived Interesting Times...

Rest well, Congressman Lantos...you have been a witness to a lot of history and made an impact.

While we bitch about how our liberties have vanished and this country has turned fascist, this man lived under such conditions. He lived where he knew at any moment, at any step, he could end up at the end of a firing squad or in a consentration camp. He was one of the last touchstones to a time when repression and fear were a lot worse than they are now and how the human spirit can survive and thrive under such adversities.

[Virginia Dare]

7. He was truly an amazing man..

I read that while he was hiding out from the Nazis he was chosen to go out periodically to get food and supplies, since as a blue-eyed blond he wouldn't be under as much suspicion (that was the thought anyway).

Every time he did it he was mortally afraid that he would be stopped and made to pull down his pants, as Jews could always be found out by their circumcisions. This actually did happen to him once, but the bunch that stopped him were too ignorant to know what they were looking at.

[KharmaTrain]

8. Words Can't Describe...

I'm Jewish and as a kid my grandmother related stories of Coassack raids on her village in what is now Poland (it was Russia then). In my closet are letters my grandparents wrote back and forth with their parents and relatives...the letters go from around 1911 and stop abruptly in 1939. My mother tried to find out what happened to our family...even traveled to the town to find out that of a pre-war Jewish population of 20,000, only 4 remained.

I also had the fortune to meet several consentration camp survivors. These people were amazing in how soft-spoken and upbeat they were despite all the horrors they had experienced. No matter how bad your situation is, it could never compare to what these people had to endure.

Thanks for sharing...

Cheers...

[Virginia Dare]

13. Have you ever read the book "Night" by Elie Wessel?

I highly recommend it, if you haven't. It's very tough to get through, but well worth it...:hi:

[TwilightGardener]

6. RIP, Mr. Lantos.

[Jack Rabbit]

9. ()

Crafts in India

[frazzled]

10. Although I did not follow his political career closely, I always felt close

and respected him. My grandparents were Jews who fled Hungary, too (though well before World War II).

That he escaped the death camps and fought in the Resistance is part of his remarkable story: that he came to this country and devoted himself to this new home, and rose to long service in the United States Congress as a representative, is inspiring. My simple, peasant grandparents may not have shared any of his accomplishments, but they worshiped the ground they walked on in America, and embraced it with typical Hungarian passion. So I feel close, and offer his family deepest condolences.

For anyone wishing to read an interesting and well-written book about Hungarian Jews who settled in America (and to a lesser extent, in Europe), I highly recommend Kati Marton's "The Great Escape" (she's married to Richard Holbrooke, and used to be married to Peter Jennings).

[L. Coyote]

11. Congressional Memorial Service replays Saturday 10 AM EST on C-SPAN

This was an impressive service.

http://www.c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan_wm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS

[TalkAgain]

12. RIP Sir!

[Crabby Appleton]

14. RIP Tom Lantos