Liviu Librescu: Holocaust Survivor and Hero of the Virginia Tech Massacre
Tuesday April 17, 2007
Full coverage: 33 Killed in Virginia Tech Massacre
Yesterday, April 16th, 2007, gave us the deadliest spree killing in U.S. history. Some in the political world have already begun to call for policy changes in response to the shooting. Most of these suggested changes have obvious civil liberties implications, and I will have more to say about them later today and over the coming week.
But there is a story that has come out of the shooting that is, I feel, more immediately pertinent. It is the story of Liviu Librescu, a 76-year-old Romanian-American Holocaust survivor:
When Israel created Holocaust Remembrance Day in 1951, it was intended to commemorate both the Holocaust and the Warsaw uprising--in which Jewish residents of the Warsaw ghetto successfully resisted Nazi deportation for 27 days. The day commemorates the tragedy of the Holocaust, certainly, but it also commemorates the courage of those who attempted to resist it. As we look back on April 16th, 2007--and we undoubtedly will--we should see to it that the name of Liviu Librescu is remembered more clearly, and with far greater reverence, than the name of the pathetic Virginia Tech shooter.
See also:
Yesterday, April 16th, 2007, gave us the deadliest spree killing in U.S. history. Some in the political world have already begun to call for policy changes in response to the shooting. Most of these suggested changes have obvious civil liberties implications, and I will have more to say about them later today and over the coming week.
But there is a story that has come out of the shooting that is, I feel, more immediately pertinent. It is the story of Liviu Librescu, a 76-year-old Romanian-American Holocaust survivor:
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 ..."Holocaust survivor dies on Holocaust Remembrance Day" would have been a tragic and ironic headline. But for a Holocaust survivor to voluntarily give up his own life on Holocaust Remembrance Day to save the lives of others, during the worst spree shooting in American history, is deeply poignant. It is a connection between the past and the future--a reminder of the countless heroes of the Holocaust, whose stories for the most part will never be told, who gave up their lives to save the lives of others. Perhaps a child named Liviu Librescu survived the Holocaust, in part, because someone made such a decision. We may never know.
"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."
When Israel created Holocaust Remembrance Day in 1951, it was intended to commemorate both the Holocaust and the Warsaw uprising--in which Jewish residents of the Warsaw ghetto successfully resisted Nazi deportation for 27 days. The day commemorates the tragedy of the Holocaust, certainly, but it also commemorates the courage of those who attempted to resist it. As we look back on April 16th, 2007--and we undoubtedly will--we should see to it that the name of Liviu Librescu is remembered more clearly, and with far greater reverence, than the name of the pathetic Virginia Tech shooter.
See also:
Comments
Well said. Liviu Librescu should be immortalized and celebrated not only for who he was and what he did, but what he represented and the connection his life makes between past and present.
This is a touching and heroic incident, not well reported by the international media. What a way to leave this World…
The story of Librescue needs to reach each and everyone in these selfish times.
I agree with Rangashree. Liviu Librescu should be talked about more on not only the internet, but on international television. He’s a great rememberance and I admire him for what he did. He did die, but at least he died doing something that, hopefully, everyone will know and remember.