Rep. Tom Lantos Dies

U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., died this morning due to complications from esophageal cancer at Bethesda Naval Medical Center, the congressman's office confirmed. He was the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress.

Lantos, who was elected to office in 1980 and represented districts in San Mateo and San Francisco, was chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. He was also a senior member on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and was a founding co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. The San Francisco Chronicle has more details on his life, as well as photos. Here are more details on his congressional activities.

After being diagnosed on Jan. 2, Lantos, 80, announced he would not seek re-election.

"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," Lantos said. "I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country."

Lantos escaped Nazi labor camps and lost nearly all of his family in the Holocaust.

"Rep. Lantos was a friend and one of the statesmen who I admired the most, not only in Washington, but in the world. He was a freedom fighter first and foremost and a patriot of the first order," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif. "Tom's passing will help us contemplate the importance of great people in the history of humankind."

President Bush issued a statement saying Lantos was a "man of character and a champion of human rights."

"Tom was a living reminder that we must never turn a blind eye to the suffering of the innocent at the hands of evil men," Bush added.

The date for a public memorial service has not yet been set but House members will honor Lantos on Thursday during a 10 a.m. memorial service in Statuary Hall, one of the most historic chambers in the Capitol building.

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