37 Facts About Tom Lantos

Tom Lantos, who served as Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in his last term, announced in early January 2008 that he would not run for re-election because of cancer of the esophagus.

Tom Lantos used his powerful voice to stir the consciousness of world leaders and the public alike.

In 2011, the Tom Lantos Institute was set up in Budapest to promote tolerance and support minority issues in Central Europe and Eastern Europe, as well as around the world.

Tom Lantos's family was heavily involved in education, and included an uncle who was a professor at the University of Budapest and a grandmother who was a high school principal.

Tom Lantos escaped, but was caught by the Germans and beaten severely, then returned to the labor camp.

Tom Lantos again escaped, this time making his way back to Budapest, 40 miles away.

Tom Lantos joined Wallenberg's network; his fair hair and blue eyes, which to the Nazis were physical signs of "Aryanism", enabled him to serve as a courier and deliver food and medicine to Jews living in other safe houses.

Tom Lantos described some of his experiences in the Academy Award-winning documentary film The Last Days, produced by Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation.

In 1981, Tom Lantos sponsored a bill making Wallenberg an Honorary Citizen of the United States, and became a member of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.

Tom Lantos continued his post-graduate education at the University of California, Berkeley, and received a Ph.

Tom Lantos eventually became a senior advisor to various US Senators, and in 1980, he was elected to the US Congress, where he remained until his death in February 2008.

Tom Lantos's family had managed to escape to Switzerland, using Swedish passports issued by Raoul Wallenberg.

Agnes Ethel Tom Lantos became a naturalized United States citizen on May 17,1954, under that name.

Tom Lantos made his first run for office in 1980, challenging Republican Congressman Bill Royer, who had won a 1979 special election after Democrat Leo Ryan was killed in the Jonestown massacre.

Tom Lantos earned a reputation as a champion for various human rights causes, such as having Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang testify at a congressional hearing, when the company turned over the email records of two Chinese dissidents to the Chinese government, allowing them to be traced and one sentenced to jail.

Tom Lantos was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and repeatedly called for reforms to the nation's health-care system, reduction of the national budget deficit and the national debt, repeal of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001.

Tom Lantos supported same-sex marriage rights and marijuana for medical use, was a strong proponent of gun control and adamantly pro-choice.

Tom Lantos was an advocate on behalf of the environment, receiving consistently high ratings from the League of Conservation Voters and other environmental organizations for his legislative record.

Tom Lantos served as the chairman of the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Tom Lantos declared Turkey's mass killings of Armenians during World War I to be genocide.

Tom Lantos was against US military aid to Egypt as the Egyptian military had failed to stop the flow of money and weapons across the Egyptian border to Hamas in Gaza, and Egypt had not contributed troops to the peacekeeping efforts in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Tom Lantos was a strong supporter of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Yet Representative Tom Lantos has been caught doing exactly that.

On October 4,2002, Lantos led a narrow majority of Democrats on the House International Relations Committee to a successful vote in support of the Resolution for the Use of Force, seeking the approval of the United Nations and under the condition that President George W Bush would allow UN weapons inspectors to finish their work and that Bush would need to return to Congress for an actual declaration of war before invading Iraq.

In later hearings on the war, Tom Lantos continued his enthusiastic support.

Tom Lantos was an immediate and consistent critic of the troop surge advocated by President Bush.

Tom Lantos added: "Wherever there was injustice or oppression, he used his expertise and moral authority to put the United States on the side of justice and human rights".

Tom Lantos was an activist for the rights of Hungarian minorities; as a member of the US House of Representatives.

Tom Lantos supported Morocco's demand to gain sovereignty over Western Sahara, and criticized the Polisario Front, which demands independence for the disputed region.

On January 2,2008, after having been diagnosed with esophageal cancer, Tom Lantos announced he would not run for a 15th term in the House, but planned to complete his final term, and thanked Congress:.

Tom Lantos died of complications from esophageal cancer on February 11,2008, before finishing his term.

Tom Lantos was buried in Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC.

Tom Lantos was criticized by some for this comment.

On May 3,2000, Lantos was involved in an automobile accident while driving on Capitol Hill.

Tom Lantos drove over a young boy's foot and then failed to stop his vehicle and was later fined over the incident for inattentive driving.

In June 2007, Tom Lantos called former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder a "political prostitute" at the dedication ceremony of the Victims of Communism Memorial, which caused a political backlash from the German government.

Tom Lantos was referring to Schroder's ties to energy business in Russia, and remarked that this appellation would offend prostitutes.