penniless survivor
Tom Lantos just passed away.
Lantos was born in Hungary and as a teenager twice escaped Nazi labor camps. He was active in the anti-Nazi underground before coming to the United States in 1947 on an academic scholarship.
When he announced his retirement from Congress, Lantos expressed his gratitude toward his adopted country, saying, “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.”
During the war, Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg protected Lantos and other occupants of a Budapest “safehouse” apartment building from arrest by Nazi soldiers.
Four decades later, Lantos, by then a member of the U.S. Congress, successfully pushed legislation granting honorary U.S. citizenship to Wallenberg.
As far as I know, he was always a bit sketchy on the details of his involvement in the anti-Nazi underground (much like MC Demszky, as Minsztrel would say, and his ostensible involvement in the samizdata of the 70s and 80s), but he comes off generally very well respected. Much to his credit, he co-sponsored legislation leading to the erection of the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington D.C.
