Tom Lantos will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously.
Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to the U.S. Congress, is one of six Americans who will receive the country’s highest civil award this year. President Bush will honor the recipients at a June 19 White House ceremony.
Lantos, a California Democrat who served 27 years in the House of Representatives, died in February.
He was best known for devoting himself to securing liberty for oppressed people around the world and became a powerful witness for the importance of freedom.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom may be awarded “to any person who has made an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, or world peace, or cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”
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