Jewish groups to honor heroic professor
Holocaust survivor professor barricaded door during Virginia Tech shootings
Professor Liviu Librescu became a hero during the massacre at Virginia Tech. Chabad and KU Hillel held a meeting in order to discuss how to honor his actions.
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
Professor Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust survivor who tried to barricade the door to his classroom to save student lives during the Virginia Tech massacre, was killed on the day after national Holocaust Remembrance day.
To honor the professor’s life and commemorate his heroic deed, students in Chabad and KU Hillel held a discussion Tuesday night in the Kansas Union featuring a PowerPoint presentation about Librescu.
Marni Green, Buffalo Grove, Ill., sophomore and Chabad member, created the PowerPoint tribute because she wanted to remember the Virginia Tech victims and especially honor Librescu.
“I wish I would have met him in person,” Green said. “He seemed like such a wonderful man.”
Lou Frydman, associate professor emeritus of social welfare, took part in the tribute by speaking about his experiences as a Holocaust survivor.
Frydman, who was 12 years old when he was taken to the first of three different concentration camps during the Holocaust, said he came from an extended family of more than 40 members. But on the first day of his capture, that number dropped to only two: just him and his brother.
There was no humor in those camps at any level.
-Lou Frydman, associate professor emeritus of social welfare
Although he laughed and joked throughout his questions and answers Tuesday night, Frydman said that wasn’t the case during his two-year time in the camps.
“There was no humor in those camps at any level,” he said.
He had been liberated from the Dachau concentration camp at the end of the European fight during World War II and said he was fortunate his struggle didn’t leave him with nightmares or other disorders after the war.
He said surviving the Holocaust set him up for a life full of possibilities and without barriers. He said the concentration camps also made him able to size up situations almost immediately, and he also picked up the Yiddish language quickly.
“It was a matter of survival,” Frydman said.
Green and Caitlin Tew, Allen, Texas, sophomore and Chabad member, also helped organize a Good Deed Dedication in memory of the Virginia Tech victims. Tew said any student on campus could promise to do a “Mitzvah,” which is a good deed in Hebrew, write the deed on a postcard and attach it to a large poster board in memory of the victims.
Green said the poster board would be kept on a wall in the Chabad House, 1201 W. 19th St., as a permanent memorial.
She said she hadn’t committed to a deed yet, but was considering either saying hello to a random stranger or reaching out to somebody who was lonely. Students can get involved in the project by going to www.jewishku.com/vtech.
Kansan staff writer Tyler Harbert can be contacted at tharbert@kansan.com.
— Edited by Ryan Schneider
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