Remember the hero

He survived the holocaust, but the Nazis got his father.

He himself ended up in a Soviet labor camp.

When he returned home to Romania, he was forced to work under a brutal dictator.

But he was dedicated to his science and to his Jewish people.

It ended up costing him his job.

He was eventually able to go to Israel where he raised his family.

Then he had an opportunity to teach in America.

He was still there a decade later, teaching his students, when the sound of gunfire could be heard outside the classroom.

He threw his 76 year-old body against the door, holding the gunman back and ordering his students to escape out the windows.

They got out, but he did not.

The authorities found the body of Professor Liviu Librescu in his classroom at Virginia Tech yesterday, where on Holocaust Remembrance Day a holocaust survivor gave his life so that his students might survive the worst shooting by a lone gunman in American history.

Too often too much attention is paid to the perpetrators of evils such as yesterday’s massacre (may the God of Infinite Justice have mercy on their souls).

We should give much more attention to people such as Liviu Librescu (may the Lord of Infinite Mercy grant him eternal rest).

We should remember the hero.

Professor Liviu Librescu

(Information from the Jerusalem Post and other sources. Picture from Virginia Tech)