Instructor/Holocaust survivor dies in massacre protecting students
The Albuquerque Tribune ^ | 4/17/07 | Laurie Copans/Associated Press
JERUSALEM — 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, 76, 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 today in a telephone interview from his home outside Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."
Joe Librescu, who studied at Virginia Tech from 1989 to 1994, said his mother received e-mails from students shortly after learning of her husband's death.
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 graduated from Romania's Polytechnic University in 1953 with a degree in mechanics and aviation construction. He received a doctorate from Romania's Academy of Sciences in 1969.
Librescu 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."
Librescu, who specialized in composite structures and aeroelasticity, published extensively and received numerous awards for his work.
Willy, how disturbing is it that the only act of selfless courage in this tragedy was performed by an old man from Romania? It seems to me that Ryan's generation has been so conditioned by political correctness and sensitivity training and all the rest of that kum-bay-ya garbage that they are little more than timid, self-absorbed sheep. And what about this evil little lunatic? By all accounts, the warning signs were everywhere that this kid was a dangerous psycho, but no action was taken. His teacher even went to the administration and campus police with her concerns, but nobody was willing to do anything about it. Oh gee, you wouldn't want to violate his civil rights or anything. And think of the bad publicity for the university! Now it seems he stalked two female students back in 2005, but nobody wanted to press charges. He got a warning, but nothing went on his record. Gosh, they might get sued or something. Forget about gun control, what we need is psycho nutjob control.
G Rex, I agree with you on principle, but I think I have heard another story or two of students barricading the door to keep their fellow classmates safe.
Okay Steve, I've since seen one story about some students barricading a door, and good for them for not being completely paralyzed with fear, they undoubtedly saved lives. I guess what I expect is a sort of Flight 93 "let's roll" moment.
Yea I agree with you G Rex. I wish those students and professors were allowed to defend themselves. Unfortunately, VA law and the school adminstrators dont allow people with CCW permits to carry on campus. I have read a number of stories of past incidents where citizens who legally carried firearms confronted the killer and stopped further shooting. I hope this can serve as a lesson learned....
Until they can get binge drinking under control, I'm not sure they should open up the campuses to guns. Profs. might be another matter, but I think the combination of alcohol, youth, and guns might not be the solution and would represent a gross overreaction to this incident. Would you carry it so far as to allow middle and high school students to carry guns in case of a shooting? What about elementary school kids? Where's the limit?
The limit would be adults (college students and professors (all grades)), 18 and over, who pass an extensive background test, go through intensive saftey and defensive firearm-use training, are licensed by the state with CCW/CCDW permits, and are in a registry kept by the local/college police
Binge drinking??? I have some ideas on that, by the way, but it's quite irrelevant to this. By the way, a student was stabbed in Shaggy's last night.
"Would you carry it so far as to allow middle and high school students to carry guns in case of a shooting? What about elementary school kids?"
Again, irrelevant. Elementary, middle and high schools have entrances that can be monitored, and the students' movements can be controlled. College campuses are wide open spaces, with multiple buildings and a constant flow of people in and out of them, or playing frisbee on the quad when they're supposed to be in a lecture. Additionally, anyone can wander onto a college campus, while the general public doesn't have the same access to grade school premises.
"Binge drinking???...it's quite irrelevant to this. By the way, a student was stabbed in Shaggy's last night."
Which proves all the more that it is not irrelevant after all. I'd rather students who are drinking excessively, a college reality no matter your feelings on it, not be allowed to have guns in their dorms, etc.
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