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| LIVIU LIBRESCU – A ROMANIAN BORN HERO (18.04.2007) |
| (2007-04-18) |
| Last updated: 2007-04-18 15:53 EET |
Shock and awe, tears, dead and wounded, revolt and many unanswered questions – these are the words that best characterise Monday’s massacre at the Virginia Tech American University. In two shootings which occurred two hours apart, the gunman – a 23 years old South Korean student – killed 32 people and wounded another 26, before turning the gun on himself. The tragedy seamed to be triggered by the gunman’s break-up with his girlfriend. The young woman and her new boyfriend were the first two victims of the rampage.
Romanian born American professor Liviu Librescu is one of the heroes of this tragic event. A Holocaust survivor, Liviu Librescu emigrated to Israel in 1978 and settled in the United States, six years later. Considered to be the founder of Romanian petro-chemistry, Liviu Librescu had a Ph.D. in fluids mechanics and was the holder of a “Doctor Honoris Causa”, that he received e from the Bucharest Polytechnic University in 2000.
Author of numerous scientific books and articles on solids and fluids mechanics research, with applications in various fields, from aeronautics to high-performance surgical instruments, Liviu Librescu also had an important role in promoting the activity of Queen Helen of Romania and in making her better known abroad. She was awarded post-mortem the “Right of the People” title, for her role in saving the lives of tens of thousands of Jews during World War Two.
Still, Romanians discovered all of these only after Liviu Librescu died, saving his students. His name was known only in academic circles, as is the case of hundreds of Romanian born scientists who boast successful careers abroad. Risking his own life, professor Librescu blocked the classroom door, delaying the assassin and allowing his students to jump out the second floor window and save their lives.
“If people like Liviu Librescu did not exist, the massacre could have turned out even more tragic” writes the daily EVENIMENTUL ZILEI, under the title “A Romanian, the hero of mourning America”. The newspaper carries the survivors’ statements, given under the shock and awe of having seen their classmates killed in cold blood. They described the shooter as being “very serious, but having a very calm look on his face”.
The tragedy opened up again the debate on arms possession in the United States. The Romanian daily GANDUL writes that “in a country where one in three Americans owns at least one fire weapon, the incident at Virginia Tech University is only the worst in a long series and definitely not the last.”
(Corina Cristea)
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