[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 35 (Wednesday, March 25, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E473]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO TOM SZELENYI

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 25, 1998

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join me in paying 
tribute to my dear friend and advisor Tom Szelenyi of Millbrae, 
California. This week he marks his 70th birthday, and his seven decades 
provide lessons from which all of us can learn--worthy examples about 
perseverance and overcoming obstacles to create a life distinguished by 
a commitment to his family and his community.
  Mr. Speaker, Tom Szelenyi's long and unpredictable journey began on 
March 28, 1928, in Budapest, Hungary. The only child of a middle-class 
Jewish family, his early years were happy ones, marked by close friends 
and loving parents. His father was a traveling salesman who was away 
from home for a portion of every week. During this time Tom remained 
with his mother and freely engaged in typical childhood pranks without 
fear of punishment--until his father's return at the weekend.
  The happy circumstances of Tom's early life were abruptly shattered 
on March 19, 1944, when the German Army seized control of Hungary. The 
occupation had swift and bloody consequences for the Hungarian Jewish 
population. Tom, only sixteen years old at the time, suffered mightily. 
Shortly after the German occupation, Nazi storm troopers arrested Tom's 
father and sent him to a forced labor camp. He never returned. He was 
murdered by a young German soldier for not working fast enough.
  Tom and his mother found temporary refuge in one of the ``safe 
houses'' that Swedish diplomat and humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg 
designated as ``Swedish Legation Property'' throughout Budapest. 
Wallenberg's remarkable courage saved the lives of as many as 100,000 
Hungarian Jews--including myself and my wife, Annette, as well as Tom 
Szelenyi and his mother. Through Wallenberg's efforts, Tom Szelenyi 
survived through the summer months, the time when the bulk of the 
Hungarian Jewish population was deported to Auschwitz and other Nazi 
death camps.
  Tom's sanctuary was short-lived, however. He was captured by the 
Germans in the fall of 1944 and, with a group of Hungarian Jewish men, 
was forced to undertake a ``death march'' of exhaustion and starvation 
from Budapest to the Austrian border. From there, Tom was shipped to 
the concentration camp at Buchenwald, Germany, where he arrived in 
November 1944.
  Tom endured seven months at Buchenwald--seven months of hunger, 
agonizing work details, and the ubiquitous fear of death. At the end of 
the war, with the American Army driving closer and closer to the center 
of the Third Reich, he and other surviving inmates were forced to march 
from Buchenwald to the concentration camp at Theresienstadt in 
Czechoslovakia. Most of Tom's fellow prisoners succumbed during this 
last Nazi torment, victims of starvation, exhaustion, and cold-blooded 
murder. Throughout this agonizing trial, as with his many previous 
struggles, Tom endured, driven by the hope that he would live to create 
a better life for himself and his family.
  The German war machine collapsed in May 1945, and Tom Szelenyi was 
liberated from Theresienstadt that same month. Still only a seventeen 
year-old boy, he then proceeded to make his way back across the war-
ravaged continent to his home in Budapest. There he joyfully discovered 
that his mother had survived the war and had remarried.
  At this time, it became evident to Tom that he had no future in 
Hungary. He realized that the time had come to fulfill his lifelong 
dream of living in the United States. Tom initially spent time in 
Germany and Canada, but he finally arrived in New York City in 1952--
penniless, but emboldened by a hunger to build a new life in America.
  His early years in this country were not easy. The young, but strong-
willed Tom Szelenyi worked at a number of different jobs--loading bales 
of hay onto ships, loading motion picture film cans onto trucks, and 
then working his way up to become a movie distributor for Warner 
Brothers.
  In late 1956, Tom received a telephone call from the Red Cross 
informing him that his mother had escaped from Budapest in the wake of 
the Hungarian uprising and that she was on her way to New York City. 
When she arrived, he immediately decided to take her to live in 
California. He had been impressed by the mild climate--he visited the 
state once in January and did not need to wear an overcoat. He was also 
attracted by the great opportunities available on the West Coast.
  In California, through hard work, Tom found great success in the air 
freight business. He recently retired after thirty successful years in 
that field. He has also applied his accumulated wisdom to making a 
difference in his adopted homeland, and he has advised and assisted me 
on some of the most important decisions that I have faced in my career 
in public service. For some time, Tom has been my representative to the 
San Mateo County Democratic Central Committee, and he has served as 
liaison with the small business community in my district.
  As successful as his business career had been and as important as his 
contributions to the community have been, Tom Szelenyi's proudest 
accomplishment is his family. In early 1957, three months after moving 
to the Bay Area, he met Evelyn Feiler, a charming and brilliant woman, 
and they were married soon after. Tom and Evelyn have enjoyed forty 
wonderful years together. They are the parents of two fine sons, Mark 
and Bob. They also have two delightful grandsons, and Tom never misses 
their soccer and T-ball games.
  Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join me in paying tribute to 
Tom Szelenyi for the integrity and example of his life and for his 
service to our community as he celebrates his 70th birthday. I am proud 
to know Tom and to have him as my friend.

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