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The aftermath of tragic events always bring stories of harrowing plight and exemplary heroism to the fore. Instinctively, one recoils at pointing up any one single story for the fear of diminishing others--and in the wake of yesterday's horrifying tragedy at Virginia Tech we're sure to hear many stories that will test the limits of what we can bear. But one story that has emerged today has stuck with us, all the same. It has no particular connection to Washington, D.C., but it really deserves to be shared, far and wide.
Liviu Librescu was a professor in VPI's School of Engineering Science and Mechanics, a position he held for two decades. His specialty was aeronautics. He was a specialist in crazy-sounding scientific fields, like the "dynamic instability of elastic and viscoelastic structures" and "aeroelastic optimization." Over the course of a lengthy academic career, he won many honors, sat on many academic boards, and served as an editor to several scientific journals. By any measure, he led an extraordinary and accomplished life.
But one facet of his biography stands out from his life in academia, and places him in a context that anyone can fully understand. The man was a survivor. During World War II, Librescu was interned at a Nazi labor camp, and was later sent, along with many other Romanian Jews to a ghetto in the town of Foscani. Librescu survived that fearful period, only to find himself at the mercy of a Communist regime in Romania, to whom he refused to swear his loyalty, a move that halted his career. He was only able to escape the regime after Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin intervened on his behalf.
It is no mean feat for Librescu to have outlasted those years he spent in fearful, horrific circumstances. Men in his position were isolated, at the mercy of fickle circumstance, with the turn of each day offering no relief from a struggle almost beyond belief. To have come through that period intact must have required well-honed instincts.
It is an extraordinary thing, then, that a man whose life was mainly defined through escape and survival faced the unfolding terror of yesterday's killings in an altogether different way. No one, knowing what he had been through in his life, could have possibly blamed him if, while in the presence of certain danger, he had fallen back on those well-honed insticts again, found a way to escape just one more time, worked to survive one more calamity. No one in their right mind would have begrudged an old man who had fought tooth and nail to have an extraordinary life his chance to preserve that.
Instead, Liviu Librescu, with a gunman approaching his classroom, took up a position at the door and told his students to flee. He stood at his post, and bought his students valuable time to preserve their own lives and their own futures. And, sadly, Mr. Librescu did not survive. His own, extraordinary life ended sometime Monday morning. But, by all available accounts, every single one of his students is alive today because of his efforts.
We will never know precisely what was going through Mr. Librescu's mind as he sacrificed himself for his students. But I like to think that instead of hearing that voice inside, beseeching him to escape, he heard something else instead.
Within hours of yesterday's shootings, it is reported that the inbox of Liviu Librescu's wife began to fill with email, all from thankful students whose lives he saved. In this small way, it can be said that Liviu Librescu has survived even this.
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This is just beautiful, it always makes me cry reading things that he did.
The story of this guy has been with me all day, since they began announcing the victim's bios. The fact that he came out of the Holocaust a survivor and was killed at the hands of some troubled American teen breaks my heart. He's such a hero for his actions and I'm so thankful that his email has been flooded to his wife and his son Joe (I hear he reported the same). It sounds like Liviu led an amazing life and had a number of outstanding accomplishments as well.
Mr. Librescu is the ultimate example of sacrifice. May he rest in perfect peace.
I read his story this morning and it brought me to tears. I still can't express what's I feel in my heart for this man. All I can say-- and it seems to inadequate-- is thank you. Thank you for being an example for us, and God bless.
That was a beautiful tribute to an amazing man. Thank you.
Like may others, I cannot stop thinking about Professor Librescu's last act (which is not to disparage all the other faculty and students who behaved with courage and compassion, before and during Monday's terrible carnage).
I've come to believe that the opposite of evil is not good, and certainly not innocence. The opposite of evil is decency, a quality integral to justice. Professor Librescu proved himself a just and decent man at the end, but I have no doubt he exemplified those qualities throughout his life.
Professor Librescu's heroic last act bought his students time--not merely to escape, but to fulfill their dreams and destinies--in short, to live.
Forgive me for invoking two of the Beatitudes in memory of an observant Jew, but the last time I checked, Jews and Christians worship the same God, and of course Christ himself died a good Jew. (In the interests of full disclosure, I am neither a Christian nor a Jew). They popped into my head when I started thinking about him.
"Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for rightesouness' sake, as they shall be satisfied."
and
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Matt. 5: 3-12)
Professor Librescu's memory will live on not only among family and friends, but in all those young lives he saved, and in the possibilities he gave them and their descendants.
Sincerely,
Deborah S. Wilson
Assistant Professor
and Cultural Studies Teaching Chair
English & Language Studies Department
Illinois Central College
P.S. Webmaster, if possible and appropriate, please send this to along to Professor Librescu's family.
Very thoughtfully written. Thank you for posting this article.
I have just a humble suggestion, if I may. Please consider referring to the professors's life work by the something other than "crazy-sounding". Admittedly, it is not familiar to most people, but these words do not befit the otherwise sincere content of your piece. Thank you.
I haven't been able to stop crying whenever I read about this man. I've heard some people are trying to get Norris Hall renamed Librescu Hall. It seems very fitting.