Holocaust survivor saved students' lives

[question everything]

Holocaust survivor saved students' lives

By LAURIE COPANS, Associated Press Writer

The e-mails from grateful students arrived soon after Liviu Librescu was shot to death, telling how the Holocaust survivor barricaded the doorway of his Virginia Tech classroom and saved their lives at the cost of his own. Librescu, an Israeli engineering and math lecturer who survived the Nazi killings and later escaped from Communist Romania, was one of several foreign victims of Monday's shootings, which coincided with Israel's Holocaust remembrance day.

"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Librescu's son, Joe Librescu, said Tuesday in a telephone interview from his home outside Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."

(snip)

When Romania joined forces with Nazi Germany in World War II, the young Librescu was interned in a labor camp, and then sent along with his family and thousands of other Jews to a central ghetto in the city of Focsani, his son said. Hundreds of thousands of Romanian Jews were killed by the collaborationist regime during the war. Librescu, who was 76 when he died, later found work at a government aerospace company. But his career was stymied in the 1970s because he refused to swear allegiance to the Communist regime, his son said, and he was later fired when he requested permission to move to Israel.

In 1977, according to his son, Israel's then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin personally intervened to get the family an emigration permit, and they left for Israel in 1978. Librescu left Israel for Virginia in 1985 for a sabbatical year, but eventually made the move permanent, said Joe Librescu: "His work was his life in a sense."

(snip)

At the university, people placed flowers on a table holding his picture and a lit candle. "We remember him as a great specialist in aeronautics. He left behind hundreds of prestigious papers," said professor Nicolae Serban Tomescu. Librescu, who specialized in composite structures and aeroelasticity, published extensively and received numerous awards for his work. He received a doctorate from the Bucharest-based Academy of Sciences in 1969, and an honorary degree from the Bucharest Polytechnic University in 2000. He also received several NASA grants and taught courses at the University "La Sapienza" in Rome and at the Tel Aviv University in Israel.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070417/ap_on_re_mi_ea/virginia_tech_world_victims

[WindRavenX]

1. I just read this and my heart broke

:cry:

[wicket]

10. yup

:cry: :cry: :cry:

[hlthe2b]

25. Isn't that the truth... Damn, we can't afford to lose men

(or women) such as this...

RIP, sir... You've left an incredible mark on this world.

[barb162]

31. Yes, it is so terribly sad. This man was a hero.

[KurtNYC]

2. That is truly heroic

very moving. I don't know what else to say.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. This year, the Yom Hashoah will be on April 16, 2007.

This heroic Holocaust survivor died on Yom Hashoah. He died saving his students on a day of remembrance for those lost to us in the Holocaust. Perhaps, it was going through his mind that on that day, none of his students would lose their lives, while he was in the position to protect them. I don't know. Just a thought.

[Reverend_Smitty]

6. I was not aware of that...

it is an amazing coincidence no matter what was in his thoughts that day. The man is a hero, period.

[tavalon]

34. Yes, as sad as it is,

he certainly died as a hero. If one must die, that is a better way to go.

[question everything]

8. And, perhaps remembered the helplessness that he and others felt

faced with the mighty Nazi army (or their Rumanian collaborators) and decided that this time he could do something.

I feel for his family.

[Behind the Aegis]

13. That is a good thought too.

He lived an amazing life and died a hero. My heart goes out to his family, as well as the others who lost a loved one.

[MLFerrell]

28. This man knew what evil is...

He saw the ultimate iteration of evil in his youth.

And he assuredly saw it in his classroom that day.

I've spoken with Holocaust survivors before. Almost universally, they regretted not having been more brave in those days. This man was brave. He saved dozens of lives. חסידי אומות העולם

Yol Bolsun, brother. For you, may there be a road.

Words cannot express my awe and admiration for this man. He died an honorable death... And though it deeply saddens me that this was his end, I can think of no act more selfless and heroic than his.

[MLFerrell]

33. Please PM me. I don't quite know how, but I wish to speak with you.

[piedmont]

4. An amazing person.

just amazing.

[ananda]

5. sigh

Such tragedy.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

7. May he dance with Abraham tonight.

n/t

[FloridaJudy]

9. Another decent human being lost

Damn, but this hurts. I'm crying.

[Phillycat]

11. Man. What an amazing person.

[Mandate My Ass]

12. OMG, no. So many beautiful lives lost

So many bright lights were snuffed out. I hope wherever this man is today he is being amply rewarded for all the horror he faced so bravely. :cry:

[InternalDialogue]

14. Someone in another thread

posted that those who helped save his life in the middle of last century had no idea that they were giving life to a man who would go on to save many more lives. In the same vein, he has saved young men and women who may go on to save many more themselves.

That cycle is what gives me hope and gives humanity a chance.

[question everything]

36. What a beautiful thought. Thank you (nt)

[Colobo]

15. Tragically beautiful... this is what our innate sense of humanity is all about

My agnosticism is broken in pieces by humans like Mr. Librescu, who make me want to say indeed: God Bless You, Sir.

I hope there is indeed a God up there, and that Mr. Librescu, along with the victims, is experiencing that ulterior happiness life on Earth will never be able to provide.

[tavalon]

35. We are all pieces of God (however one might choose to see Diety)

and his piece of God shined brightly just before he died.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

16. tragic end to a brave man!

[VTMechEngr]

17. He was my dynamics professor.

At least he went out saving lives. He helped me back when I was having a family crisis.

[caligirl]

19. How wonderful you got to know a great person who made life better for others.

Great ones walk among us.

[undeterred]

21. He was teaching a solid mechanics class yesterday morning.

How amazing that he was still teaching at 76. And that his instinct was not every man for himself, but to be the one to protect his students.

Its a new testament quote but probably a Hebrew sentiment: "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." John 15:3

[Rydz777]

18. The horrors of the

20th century produced many heroes, and this great and good man, a man of the 20th century, was just visiting in ours, but he stayed long enough to save the lives of young people to whom this century will belong. May he rest in peace and honor.

[MedleyMisty]

20. I cried a bit when I first heard about him on NPR today

When I got home and read the in-depth story here on DU, I sobbed.

We should honor this man, and learn from him.

[LeftishBrit]

22. That is so sad. He was a great man!

[rasputin1952]

23. Those who have stood in the shadow of death know all too

well that either you act, or you accept what horror is descending upon you.

This man acted, and is truly a hero. I'm pretty sure he never felt like a hero, never felt like anything special, just another soul making this journey; but when a snag came, he acted out of compassion for his students, thinking not of his own safety, trying to protect that which he could.

I don't think there are any more blessed than those who place their lives on the line for their fellow human beings. He did what he believed was the right thing, and for this, he has earned gratitude from those saved, as well as setting an exemplary model for those who may find themselves in the future.

May he rest in peace w/the knowledge that he has saved lives...O8)

[Rocknrule]

24. You mean without this guy's sacrifice it would've been WORSE?

Good God, how much ammo did he have?

[barb162]

32. Kick and thank you so much for posting

This hero's story needs to be told.

[BurtWorm]

26. Hero.

:patriot:

What more can you say?

[Behind the Aegis]

27. Kick for the night shift.

:kick:

[Starbucks Anarchist]

29. Rest in Peace, Liviu Librescu.

[rockymountaindem]

30. Kick

This guy's life (and sadly, death) story is just astonishing to me. I've met a few people of his generation with mind-blowing life stories like his, and it's such a shame that we lost this individual before his time and in such a senseless way.

He's left quite a legacy though.