Katrina Swett, Daughter of Late Congressman Tom Lantos on Human Rights

An interview with Katrina Swett, the daughter of the late Tom Lantos.
Katrina Swett, Daughter of Late Congressman Tom Lantos on Human Rights
Katrina Swett, daughter of Congressman Tom Lantos, hosted the award ceremony of the second annual Lantos Foundation Human Rights Prize on Nov. 17. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)
Jan Jekielek
11/18/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/untitled14.jpg" alt="Katrina Swett, daughter of Congressman Tom Lantos, hosted the award ceremony of the second annual Lantos Foundation Human Rights Prize on Nov. 17. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)" title="Katrina Swett, daughter of Congressman Tom Lantos, hosted the award ceremony of the second annual Lantos Foundation Human Rights Prize on Nov. 17. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1811937"/></a>
Katrina Swett, daughter of Congressman Tom Lantos, hosted the award ceremony of the second annual Lantos Foundation Human Rights Prize on Nov. 17. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

NEW YORK—The 2010 Lantos Human Rights Prize was awarded to Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel. On the eve of the award ceremony, the late Lantos’s daughter Katrina Swett, who was also the hostess of the event, opened up to The Epoch Times on Nov. 17. Tom Lantos is the only Holocaust survivor to have served in Congress.

Born to a Jewish family in Hungary, Lantos was captured and sent to a Nazi labor camp when he was 16. By the end of the war, he lost most of his family members but reunited with childhood sweetheart Anette Tillemann, whose family members had also perished. The two married and immigrated to the United States in 1947.

As a politician, Lantos had always been a solid supporter of human rights. He voiced for suppressed groups around the world, including, but not limited to dissidents persecuted in China and victims of the Darfur conflict.

After the congressman’s death in 2008, the Lantos family carried on his spirit as an advocate for human rights and established the annual Tom Lantos Human Rights Prize.

Epoch Times (ET): Why did you choose professor Wiesel particularly as the recipient of the prize?

Katrina Swett (KS): He is really one of the pre-eminent moral voices of our time. He doesn’t have a peer when it comes to being able to speak for people in every circumstance, having endured the worst that humanity can inflict upon our fellow human beings. He went on to embody the spirit of humanity and decency, courageously speaking up for oppressed people everywhere. There were other nominations but the choice [of Wiesel] was very clear and convincing. The fact of his very close and personal relationship with my father also made it meaningful for us. Very meaningful.

ET:
Do you think the prize can help the professor in any way to continue his work?

KS:
We hope so. We certainly hope that the Lantos Prize will become the pre-eminent human rights prize. You know the Nobel Peace Prize is in a class of its own but it’s more focused on the issue of peace. Our prize is specifically focused on the issue of human rights, which is not always synonymous with peace. There are times when we have to be ready to defend human rights. We certainly hope the attention and hopefully the acclaim that comes with this prize will bring added strength to his work. Obviously he is such a noble and distinguished figure on his own right, so we’re very honored to presenting it to him. We hope it will be of help.

ET: Is there a short message you would like to share with our readers?

KS: The case in China really represents a great challenge for those of us in the human rights community. For so much of the world, the power and the might of China is a deterrent, frankly, to standing up and saying certain hard truths—whether is it speaking out about the persecution of Falun Gong, whether it is the need to find ways to circumvent the great firewall of China, [or pointing out] the way in which [Chinese officials] try to keep their own people from being able to freely access and share knowledge and information. This is one of the human rights moral challenges of our day, to not succumb to the power and the lure and economic might of China, and to not abandon our principles and commitment to standing up for fundamental principles.

We know through history that those societies that respect the rights of their own citizens are ultimately the societies that prosper. They are ultimately the societies that are strong politically, strong economically, and strong culturally—strong in every way. We wish nothing but the best for China, it is a great country, but we will not back down, at least the Lantos Foundation will not back down in standing up, and speaking out, and fighting on behalf of those that are struggling for their rights in that society.

Click below to listen to The Epoch Times special edition podcast titled, “Arranged in Captivity: Music From the Persecuted,” with extensive audio from the second annual Lantos Human Rights Prize ceremony at Tishmann Auditorium, including music from the Terezin Chamber Music Foundation, and a vocal performance by Charity Sunshine, granddaughter of Tom Lantos: [mp3remote]http://epoch-utils.com/web/podcast/download.php?filename=2010-11-23_etpodcastspecialeditionarranged_in_captivityrichcrankshaw.mp3[/mp3remote]

Jan Jekielek is a senior editor with The Epoch Times and host of the show "American Thought Leaders." Jekielek’s career has spanned academia, media, and international human rights work. In 2009, he joined The Epoch Times full time and has served in a variety of roles, including as website chief editor. He was an executive producer of the award-winning Holocaust documentary film "Finding Manny."
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