Congressman, Holocaust Survivor Remembered

Feb. 11, 2008— -- I first met Congressman Tom Lantos shortly after I became the political reporter at KGO-TV in San Francisco in the early '90s. I had scheduled an interview with him in his district's San Mateo office. When I arrived, he was dressed impeccably, even on his day off, in a pressed suit and tie.

He offered me a cup of tea and, before the interview began, took out his latest photographs to share of his beautiful family; his two daughters, who between them gave him 18 grandchildren. I remember that photograph of them taken on a grassy hill, all of them dressed in red and green plaid. They looked like the perfect family.

But behind the perfect picture was a harrowing story of the patriarch, who honestly believed he would never live past his 16th birthday.

It was 1944 — the final year of Adolph Hitler's escalation against the Jews in Lantos' homeland, Hungary. As a teenager he was forced into a concentration camp. And while there were no gas chambers, he told me in a subsequent interview, the threat of death always hung over the prisoners.

"I never expected to survive this period," he said. "There was no doubt in my mind that it was just a matter of time before I will be done away with." He then grinned and with a twinkle in his eye added, "It's been a pleasant surprise."

That was the way Congressman Lantos was. He would refer to such evil in the world in one breath, and in the next, manage to see the beauty.

He somehow escaped the Nazi camp and came under the protection of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews. Lantos reunited with his childhood sweetheart, Annette, and began raising their family.

Their two daughters told them they wanted to have so many children as a gift to their parents because both of them had lost most of their families during the Holocaust.

Lantos was elected to the California district's congressional seat in 1980, the only member to serve there who had survived the Holocaust. And while he didn't like to dwell on that time in his life, it was clear it shaped him and his desire to fight for human rights around the world.