Liviu Librescu was a Holocaust survivor. He also survived communist Romania, and escaped to Israel in 1977. In 1985 he visited the United States on sabbatical, and ended up making Virginia his home. Yesterday morning he was giving a lecture in Room 204 of Norris Hall, on the Virginia Tech campus, when the pop of gunfire announced that another inexplicable evil had arrived. It was Holocaust Memorial Day. From the Jerusalem Post:
As Jews worldwide honored on Monday the memory of those who were murdered in the Holocaust, a 76-year-old survivor sacrificed his life to save his students in Monday's shooting at Virginia Tech College that left 33 dead and over two dozen wounded.
Professor Liviu Librescu, 76, threw himself in front of the shooter when the man attempted to enter his classroom. The Israeli mechanics and engineering lecturer was shot to death, "but all the students lived - because of him," Virginia Tech student Asael Arad - also an Israeli - told Army Radio.
Several of Librescu's other students sent e-mails to his wife, Marlena, telling of how he had blocked the gunman's way and saved their lives, said Librescu's son, Joe.
"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Joe Librescu said in a telephone interview from his home outside of Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."
Librescu was killed when the gunman shot through the door he was holding shut. My wife reminded me of one of our favorite quotes, which occurs at the beginning of the movie Schindler's List.
He who saves one life, saves the world entire.
I cry easily during certain kinds of movies, and I cried at the end of this one when you see, very vividly, how many human beings are alive today because of Oscar Schindler. All existing bloodlines eventually mix. There will come a time when everyone who lives on earth will be a descendant of Schindler's Jews, and very probably, when everyone has an ancestor among the students in Room 204. Professor Librescu both saved the world, and redeemed it.
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