Annette M. Tillemann-Dick, M.A.R. Mrs. Annette Lantos shares some of her story of that terrible night and how she survived to become one of our countrys great advocates for human rights all around the world.ANNETTE LANTOS BIOTOM LANTOS LIFE STORY - AS TOLD BY ANNETTE LANTOS. At Wallenberg's prompting, similar protective passports were issued by the Swiss and Spanish governments and the Vatican. It would have been so much easier to just die," said Annette Lantos Tillemann-Dick, at a press conference today to thank the good Samaritans who put out the flames devouring his body. Igor and Irina Ratushinskaia, Tom Lantos, Kent Hill, and Annette Lantos, undated, Item 842, Box: 191. This is not a knock on you, General Petraeus, or on you, Ambassador Crocker. Tom Lantos net worth is $14 Million Tom Lantos Wiki: Salary, Married, Wedding, Spouse, Family Thomas Peter "Tom" Lantos (February 1, 1928 - February 11, 2008) was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from California, serving from 1981 until his death as the representative from a district that included the northern two-thirds of San Mateo County and a portion of . He was 80. That just leaves our third son, Corban, who hasadded to our United Nations kind of family with a brilliant, beautiful wifeborn and raised in South Korea. We all go through that one-way street that leads to the grave, there is no immunity from the grave, we all have to meet our maker sooner or later. He drove over a young boy's foot and then failed to stop his vehicle and was later fined over the incident for inattentive driving. Lantos, first elected to Congress in 1980 as a Democratic lawmaker from California, was remembered as a champion of human rights, from his work on the 1980s on behalf of Soviet Jewry, to recent. At least three links on his congressional Web site detailed his biography as the youthful fighter in the Hungarian resistance who discovered after the war that the Nazis had killed most of his family. February 11, 2008 / 9:46 AM / AP. [54], On May 3, 2000, Lantos was involved in an automobile accident while driving on Capitol Hill. [8] His 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. He keeps me flying straight.. Dr. Lantos Swett is the former Chair and Vice-Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and teaches Human Rights and American Foreign Policy at Tufts University. 2023 jewish telegraphic agency all rights reserved. After a few years, they were able to purchase a modest home in San Bruno, and later they bought a home in Millbrae, where their two daughters attended public schools and where Tom served for several . Mother Annette Lantos eventually joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Annette Tillemann's childhood was joyous until March 19, 1944, when German SS Troops entered Hungary and began the immediate and mass deportation of Hungary's Jews. Annette Lantos is a Chairman of The Lantos Foundation at Lantos Foundation based in Concord, New Hampshire. I don't buy it. I do believe in different forms of life. More information on Tom Lantos can be found here. On a bitter cold Christmas eve in 1944, a little Jewish girl, 13 years old but with her diminutive size and Shirley Temple curls looked closer to 8, kissed her mother goodbye and alone began to make her way towards the Swiss border. The event was held at the Great Synagogue in Budapest,[12] today the largest synagogue in Europe. Our guest on this episode of The Keeper is . Democrat member of the US House of Representatives from California; term of service: 3 January 1981 - 11 February 2008 (died in office). Some conservative observers might dismiss Swetts Trump criticism, since shes a Democrat, but Swett has crafted a reputation as a forceful and fiercely independent advocate for human rightsand specifically international religious freedom. He was married to Annette Tillemann. As some Democrats de-emphasize traditional human rightsoften in favor of LGBT concernsand Republicans face pressure not to criticize a GOP White House, Swetts example of independence shows it is possible to put policy over politics. guys who need constant female attention; 8th infantry division baumholder germany. Speakers included Senator Joe Biden, Bono of U2, Rep. Steny Hoyer, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Rep. Christopher Shays and Elie Wiesel.[46]. [14], After graduation from Berkeley, Lantos became a professor of economics at San Francisco State University. His the best movie is The Last Days. [24], 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. She recalled Lantoss last visit to Israel last year, where they toured military installations along the northern border and heard pleas from military commanders to keep Israel safe. The Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice was founded later that year to carry out that wish. Miraculously she has emerged, smiling andsinging, from very near death both times. He died before finishing his term. What Do I Believe? On the wall hangs a painted portrait of her father casting an adoring glance at his wife. The first Lantos Human Rights Prize, named in the congressman's memory, was presented to the 14th Dalai Lama in 2009. J.C.D. [29], As co-founder of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in 1983 and as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Lantos would "stir the consciousness of world leaders and the public alike", according to Representative Nancy Pelosi. Her father was a great man, said Elliott Abrams, a former Reagan administration official who frequently worked with Lantos on human rights issues. He had become a hunted animal because he was a young Jewish man, Swett said. Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett serves as President of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, established in 2008 to continue the legacy of her father, the late Congressman Tom Lantos. Katrina Lantos Swett recalls her father as a proud and patriotic Hungarian before his country turned against him. Papers: ca. Ideas That Animate My Religious Life Annette Tilleman Lantos Read more Events People Works of Art Organizations Occasions Locations 2015 Sunstone Education Foundation [55], In 2002, Lantos, who was on the House Committee on International Affairs, took Colette Avital, a Labor Party member of the Israeli Knesset, by the hand and, according to Haaretz, tried to reassure her with these words: "My dear Colette, don't worry. In January 2006, he traveled to Hungary and attended a ceremony commemorating the 61st anniversary of the liberation of the Budapest Ghetto. The couple reconnected after the war, married in 1950, and settled in California. She is also the daughter of the late California Congressman Tom Lantos, a Hungarian native, who was the only Holocaust survivor to be elected to the US Congress. In 2007, he backed Morocco's proposal to make the region autonomous under Moroccan rule, saying: "I urge the leadership of the Polisario to realize that they will never again get such a good deal for the population they purport to represent."[43]. Rep. Tom Lantos, who as a teenager twice escaped from a Nazi-run forced labor camp in Hungary and became the only Holocaust survivor to win a seat in Congress . On a bitter cold Christmas eve in 1944, a little Jewish girl, 13 years old but with her diminutive size and Shirley Temple curls looked closer to 8, kissed her mother goodbye and alone began to make her way towards the Swiss border. All rights reserved. I do not believe in death. On September 10, 2011, the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA officially opened the Tom and Annette Lantos Center for Compassion, located at 1450 Rollins Road in Burlingame, California. "The train is now on its way", said Lantos after the resolution successfully passed both houses of Congress. We also advodate for organ donationforobvious reasons of abject gratitude. A short while earlier, they had fled from Hungary where Jews were facing deportation and death at the hands of the Nazi occupiers. Lantos was born in Budapest, Hungary. After the war, she was reunited with her childhood sweetheart, Tom Lantos, who later, in 1981, became the only Holocaust survivor to serve in the U.S. Congress (1981 - 2008, D-California). Historical records matching Annette Lantos Annette Tilleman in Biographical Summaries of Notable People view all Immediate Family Congressman Thomas Peter Lantos husband Private child Private child Mary Szazs mother Sebastian Tillemann father view all Annette Lantos's Timeline Even at a young age, he understood the significance of this invasion:[9]. His spouse is Annette Tillemann ( m. 1950) . She later raised the matter with President Jimmy Carter. We can not take ANY of this Administration's assertions on Iraq at face value anymore, and no amount of charts or statistics will improve its credibility. Swett spent the Obama years often urging the administration to be more active and challenging congressional Democrats to do the same. Katrina Lantos Swett's sister, Annette Lantos Tillemann-Dick, graduated from Yale in 1978 and is the mother of six Yale grads ("A modern-day record," Biden claimed at that 2015 class day). Senators, and in 1980, he was elected to the U.S. Congress, where he remained until his death in February 2008. [39][40], The American Hungarian Federation recognized Congressman Lantos for his "Leadership in Support of Democracy, Human Rights and Minority Rights in Central and Eastern Europe", awarding him the organization's highest award, the "Col. Commandant Michael Kovats Medal of Freedom", at the October 19, 2005, Congressional Reception commemorating the 49th Anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Instead, the younger Annette suggested, he admired his wifes beliefs but did not embrace them: He had faith in the sustaining power of her faith in spirituality, she said. She also spoke directly with President Jimmy Carter about Wallenberg's case. He was buried in Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. On June 19, 2008, President George W. Bush posthumously awarded Lantos the Medal of Freedom. The story of Congressman Tom Lantos as told by his wife, Mrs. Annette Lantos. "[27], Lantos died of complications from esophageal cancer on February 11, 2008, before finishing his term. Durant ces dbats, les diverses tendances du . I continue to enjoy the fruits of all those labors. They had heard that children alone might be given refuge and so with fearful broken hearts, they said goodbye and this child walked with her little suitcase in hand towards the barbed wire of no-mans land. Through its more than 20 years of work, the Congressional Human Rights Caucusof which Lantos was co-chair with Representative Frank Wolfcovered a wide range of human rights issues. The facility was funded with a naming gift in the Lantos's honor by Oracle founder, Larry Ellison, and his wife, Melanie. Moreover, it is a culture that encourages conversion and does not easily accommodate intermarriage. Lantos and his wife Annette had two daughters, Annette and Katrina, and 17 grandchildren. A short while earlier, they had fled from Hungary where Jews wer. [35], On April 28, 2006, Lantos and four other Democratic U.S. Katrina Lantos Swett, 60, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the mother of seven children. He continued his post-graduate education at the University of California, Berkeley, and received a Ph.D. in economics in 1953. She 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". Step into Swetts office in downtown Concord, N.H., and it takes only seconds to see how much the legacies of father and daughter intertwine. Ideas That Animate My Religious Life What Do I Believe? I have no basis for assuming that her story is not true, but the point goes beyond that. The next three are students at Yale,though currently Mercina has stopped out to serve a full-time mission for ourchurch, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She has spearheaded numerous efforts to help . Date: 19 June 2008, 09:57:20: Agnes Ethel Lantos became a naturalized United States citizen on May 17, 1954, under that name. [17], Lantos and his wife had two daughters, Annette Marie and Katrina, and 18 grandchildren, including Levi, an author and energy expert; Tomicah, a former Democratic political speechwriter; and Charity, an opera singer and activist. As a result of his fluent English,[citation needed] he wrote an essay about Franklin D. Roosevelt, and he was awarded a scholarship by the Hillel Foundation to study in the United States. [31] Yet Representative Tom Lantos has been caught doing exactly that. Yvonne Katrina Swett (ne Lantos; born October 8, 1955) is the President of the Lantos Foundation. Tillemann-Dick's late husband, Timber Dick, was an acclaimed inventor and the son of Colorado's first female lieutenant governor. She also served on the United States Commission on International . Learn more about Annette Lantos - movies and shows, full bio, photos, videos, and more at TV Guide why did bella poarch leave the navy; how to make spicy brown mustard with yellow mustard WASHINGTON (JTA) In Jewish Washington, it was the fraught and thorny question that inevitably came up in discussions about Tom Lantos: What about the Mormon thing? In 2011, the institute was set up in Budapest to promote tolerance and support minority issues in central and eastern Europe and in the world.[7]. I;m sorry this is asconcise as I could be at this time of night/day. He is now the Senior Adviser to the Secretary ofState for Civil Society and Emerging Democracies (whew!) She noted that Lantos likened his life to a vacation at his beloved Lake Balaton in Hungary. The mission of The Sunstone Education Foundation is to sponsor open forums of Mormon thought and experience. "[47], In 2008, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, which he founded in 1983, was renamed The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. Starting in early 2006, Lantos distanced himself from the Bush Administration's Iraq policy, making critical statements at hearings, on the House floor and in published media interviews about the conduct of the war. That first production number was followed by many moreeleven living babesin all, stillborn twins and a beautiful adopted teenager from Honduras. [17] On January 2, 2008, after having been diagnosed with esophageal cancer, Lantos announced he would not run for a 15th term in the House, but planned to complete his final term, and thanked 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. Nine months later, with two dogsalong for the ride, we had our first baby,a boy,in the car on the way toYale, New Haven Hospital. Swett attributes her double education at home and school for rapidly preparing her for college. The Lantoses' daughter Annette was married to Timber Dick, an independent businessman in Colorado,[18] until his accidental death in 2008. He eventually became a senior advisor to various U.S. His occupation was Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives. Mother Annette Lantos eventually joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I truly appreciate your constancy andremember with gratitude your band's vital contribution to our production ofGOdspell so many years ago. [27] He declared Turkey's mass killings of Armenians during World War I to be genocide. Annette Tillemann Lantos Yet he was a politician who wore his Jewish experience on his sleeve. However, Lantos, then 17, returned home only to discover that his mother and other family members had all been murdered by the Germans, along with 440,000 other Hungarian Jews, during the preceding 10 months of their occupation. Why are we now repeating the short-sighted patterns of the past? Annette Tilleman's childhood was joyous until March 19, 1944, when German SS Troops entered Hungary and began the immediate and mass deportation of Hungary's Jews. She read Bible stories to her daughters but showed deference to her husbands wishes. Contact. After the war, The New York Times wrote, "It's plainly wrong for a member of congress to collaborate with a public relations firm to produce knowingly deceptive testimony on an important issue. One of the videos viewed at the first annual Lantos Human Rights Prize ceremony. Copyright 2023 Yale University. As a formidable team, Annette and Tom turned their trauma and grief into a passionate, decades-long fight to promote human rights and the rights of minorities around the world. Like Lantos widow, Schneier also quoted the late congressman as invoking the finality of death: He has a message for all of us, he said. In den folgenden Jahren war sie bevorzugt in diversen Fernsehkrimis wie Polizeiruf 110, Tatort, oder Die Kommissarin zu sehen, spielte aber auch in den Kinofilmen Wie Feuer und . [27] In more recent times, he supported democracy in Burma and pressed for sanctions on Iran for supporting terrorism. Schneier said that in Lantos final days, he and his wife joined Annette and Lantos in their Washington apartment, reciting the psalms together, and singing the Shma Israel, the Jewish invocation of Gods oneness that gains special meaning when it is said close to death. After Hungary was liberated, she and her family returned to Budapest, where she and Lantos met again. 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