U.S. Representative Tom Lantos, the only survivor of the Holocaust to have served in Congress, has died at the age of 80 in Maryland.  Lantos had recently found out he had cancer of the esophagus.  His district covered parts of San Francisco and San Mateo.

Spokeswoman Lynne Weil said Lantos died early Monday at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center in suburban Maryland. He was surrounded by his wife, Annette, two daughters, and many of his 18 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Lantos was an American patriot that served his country to the best of his ability for dozens of years.  He escaped twice from Hitler’s labor camps.

Lantos, who referred to himself as “an American by choice,” was born to Jewish parents in Budapest, Hungary, and was 16 when Adolf Hitler occupied Hungary in 1944. He survived by escaping twice from a forced labor camp and coming under the protection of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who used his official status and visa-issuing powers to save thousands of Hungarian Jews.

Congress would be a much better place if there were more men and women of Lantos’ character there.