Last week at the Congressional Cemetery, I noticed the stone for Congressman Thomas Peter Lantos. What drew my attention was that there lot of stones on the marker. I looked into it and learned that it is a Jewish tradition to leave stones on graves when you have visited them.
Lantos is well known as being the only Holocaust survivor who also served in the Congress. He represented the northern part of San Mateo County. He was Hungarian and. of course, was a strong advocate for human rights. There is a film that talks about his experiences that was produced by Steven Spielberg called the The Last Days.
He died of esophagal cancer in 2008, and did not complete his term. When he announced his cancer to Congress, he said:
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. I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country."
I think I may bring a stone next time I visit his grave. I believe I support what he did with his life.
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