Liviu Librescu

LIVIU LIBRESCU

My hero is Liviu Librescu. He was born in Romania in 1930. When he died he was 76 years old. I think Liviu is a hero because he gave his life while saving his students at Virginia Tech.

Liviu was born in an atmosphere of anti-Semitism. Being a Jew, he was subjected to hardship, including retention in labor camps, which affected his family as well, during WWII. At the end of the war he studied aeronautical engineering. However, a few years later, a Communist regime was installed, and he had to stay until he finally was able to leave for Israel. There he continued conducting research, and then, in 1985, he was offered a permanent position at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, which he accepted.

Liviu Librescu was very courageous and his courage saved all his students. If it wasn’t for him holding the door while his students escaped through the windows, they would all be dead, according to one of his students. He was teaching when the shooter tried to come into his class. That is when this concentration camp survivor blocked the door with his body to save his students. Only after they were all gone did he let the door open with five bullets in his back…

Mourning the victims

He had a chance to get away if he wanted to, but he stayed at the door and waited until the last student went out the window before he died. This teacher did not have any family ties with these kids, yet he gave his life for them, probably thinking about the concentration camps, the injustice of people dying without reason, with no one doing anything about it. And he thought to himself, “Never again!” and put himself in the way of the bullets to save teens he hardly knew.

Liviu Librescu did great things in his life and died doing one last good deed. I wonder if one of my teachers would have done the same thing?...What would you have done in his place?