Holocaust survivor sacrificed his life to save students at VT

Holocaust survivor sacrificed his life to save students at VT

news.yahoo.com

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.

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I am almost at a loss of words. This man is a hero and martyr. He gave his life so that others may live. He should be an inspiration to all. This man had seen hell and lived through it Sixty years ago. Of all the people there this 76 year old Israeli went above and beyond as a human being in a time of horror. I hope he is remembered for his sacrifice.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I totally agree. This man is a hero no matter how you cut it. The unfortunate irony is that 70 years after being nearly killed for his beliefs and he heritage, he was finally killed for no reason at all.

It brought tears to my eyes when I first heard it, the guy on FOXNews was just lost for words.

A true hero.

Irony, or destiny..

It's got to make you wonder if there's really a God who controls all our fates, to eventually put us in the right place at the right time. That one act may have been the sole purpose of his life.

We call so many people heroes in this society of ours that do not deserve it. Sports figures are definitely not heroes, nor are entertainers, actors or anyone like that. It is not to say that they cannot be, but just being what they are and are paid to do does not qualify them.

The same is true for soldiers. I am sure it is great solace to the friends and family but, for the most part, soldiers are not heroes... they are paid (and paid poorly at that) to do a dirty, ugly and evil job... that of preparing to kill and killing... and I am saying this as a veteran... so unless they go above and beyond the call to duty, or sacrifice their lives to save another, they are simply put, workers just like you and I, not heroes.

Firemen and rescue workers have a greater claim to being called heroes but still it is a job. The off duty firemen who responded to 9/11 and died there... yes they are heroes... because they could have looked the other way... hey its not my shift, I am off duty. But that is not what they did, they went to serve and died. They set I, me and mine aside, they discounted self-interest and paid the price.

This professor is a hero for all the right reasons. He died trying to save others, putting his life on the line and paying a hard price so that his students could escape. Considering the horror he lived through in his youth, and now this; I have no words to express the nobility of his act so I will shut up now.

As long as there are people still like him in the world, there will be hope in these situations. It is a very great bit of bravery, and nobility to do something like that, and i can only say that every one who knows him should be proud that they knew someone like him. I can also say that I hope that if I were put in such a situation then I would do something similar, rather than just run away.

Originally posted by grover
We call so many people heroes in this society of ours that do not deserve it. Sports figures are definitely not heroes,

Glad i'm not the only one who feels that way.

I'm sure I've seen a quote saying that the truest heroes are ones who die in their heroic act.

Very brave yes, but this will just gain the whole story even more media attention, due to his holocaust past..

There are MANY more important news stories to be focusing on as a nation, than a high school shooting. I know that sounds appauling, but emotionally sensitive stories like this are promoted in order to detract away from something else thats happening..

If i were a US citizen, i would be far more concerned with my countries economy right now!

It's too bad that the significance of the thing will be lost on many. A person who survived Nazi Germany? I don't think many of the students he saved have any comprehension of what that really means.

I have a professor who was friends with him, and she said he was one of the world's greatest people. Such a shame, and so brave.
My mom told me last night that they said on the news that he was able to email his wife after he got shot to tell her what happened, and then he died. Don't know how true that statement is, but it would be amazing if it were.

Incredibly brave and also at the same time very sad. I hope God's looking after them all now. I have to confess am pretty humbled that someone who has been through what that man had did what he did I guess it shows that Chivalry is not dead in some people he did a noble thing and something that's beyond price when such a set of evil circumstances visit anyone as they did there.

any web information about the man, Dr Liviu Librescu,
is very sparse, except for his links within VirginiaTech University,

education:

MS, Polytechnic Institute, Bucharest Romania, 1953
PhD, Academy of Sciences of Romania, 1963

i guess Dr Librescu was about ~75 years of age.?
i heard on TV news, he had a hard time exiting Romania because the
communists didn;t want to let scientist-engineers emigrate, to Israel.
but he did get to Israel, don't know when, then got to the USA,
and will be returned to Israel for burial.

Originally posted by shrunkensimon
Very brave yes, but this will just gain the whole story even more media attention, due to his holocaust past..

There are MANY more important news stories to be focusing on as a nation, than a high school shooting. I know that sounds appauling, but emotionally sensitive stories like this are promoted in order to detract away from something else thats happening..

If i were a US citizen, i would be far more concerned with my countries economy right now!

What you cnat even spare a moment to show some grattitude to what this guy did? Mate i havent even heard about this story till i read it here on ATS. So its not all over the media, from whatn i know. This person did something none of us would probably i do, i know id have trouble doing what he did, especialy if death is staring you right in the face.

i do not judge one by his faith but the actions he/she does.
he has shown true courage by sacrificing his life for those around him
RIP.

and to the person who said there is better news out there why waste your time and reply?

shrunkensimon i don't iknow what country you live in but stuff like this doesn't happen very often and yes its very news worthy for lots of accounts .
#1 why wasn't the school put on lockdown after the first shooting at 7:30 am with a pa announcement that police would be searching all buildings for students safety.

#2 how is it legal for a non us citizen to go and purchase firearms. i was under the belief that the constitution only gave that right to citizens.

#3 why did he do it was it a terrorist act or was it a person gone crazy.

these are just some of the things i would like to know about this incident
i could give 2 craps about economy because i can't do anything about it
till we get a new election. and by the way virginia tech is not a high school its a university.

proteus33 he was a US citizen and it wasnt a terror attack as the the person who did the shooting was under mental health care

Originally posted by bodrul
proteus33 he was a US citizen and it wasnt a terror attack as the the person who did the shooting was under mental health care

He wasn't technically a citizen, he was a resident alien, as I recall.

I have no problem with giving a resident alien access to weapons if they're not nut jobs. The same arguments for not giving them a weapon fail for the same reason they fail for citizens.

Here is an expanded profile.

www.washingtonpost.com...

Originally posted by shrunkensimon
Very brave yes, but this will just gain the whole story even more media attention, due to his holocaust past..

There are MANY more important news stories to be focusing on as a nation, than a high school shooting. I know that sounds appauling, but emotionally sensitive stories like this are promoted in order to detract away from something else thats happening..

Are you 'aving a laff?

What is the quota for student deaths due to shooting in one day that would make it a story worthy of reporting....

Does this sort of thing happen on a regular basis in your neck of the woods?

Why does him being a holocaust survivor matter in this story?