Photographie du professeur défunt, affichée à l’Université Polytechnique de Bucarest. © Reuters

NDLR: Les faits se sont produits le lendemain du Jour de la commémoration de la Shoah, qui a débuté dimanche soir ("entre les 2 soirs"). Le massacre a commencé à 7:15 du matin à Richmond, soit 14h15 en Israël. L'assassin d'origine coréenne portait sur le bras cette inscription énigmatique à l'encre rouge "Ismail Ax". On suppose que ce message fait référence à une jeune fille musulmane indonésienne avec qui il était en contact via Internet. Une autre interprétation possible avancée par la police: il s'agirait d'un message codé faisant référence à la secte musulmane des assassins. Le professeur Livrescu quand à lui, mondialement connu, avait été déporté par les Nazis dans un camp de concentration en Ukraine. Je vous mets ci-dessous de poignants messages, en anglais, mais notez qu'en Europe (Grande Bretagne) des professeurs renoncent à enseigner la Shoah pour ne pas indisposer leurs élèves musulmans (voir info passée hier) pendant qu'un rescapé de cette même Shoah fait un barrage de son corps pour sauver ses élèves...

Parmi les 31 victimes de la tuerie perpétrée lundi dans le campus de l’université de Blacksburg, en Virginie (Etats-Unis), figure un professeur d’ingénierie, de 77 ans de nationalité israélienne. Il s’agit du professeur Liviu Librescu, 77 ans, rescapé de la Shoah, qui enseignait l’ingénierie et la mécanique dans l’établissement, qui compte au total près de 26 000 étudiants.

La veuve du professeur, qui réside aux Etats-Unis, et ses deux fils qui vivent en Israël, ont été avertis. Cette attaque, perpétrée par un jeune d’origine asiatique d’une vingtaine d’années, qui s’est ensuite suicidé, a fait, au total, 31 victimes. La plupart d’entre elles seraient des étudiants. 26 autres ont été blessés.

Un jeune Israélien, Assael Arad, qui étudie dans cette université, a témoigné, mardi matin, sur les ondes de Galei Tsahal. Il a indiqué que le professeur Librescu avait, en fait, sauvé la vie de ses étudiants. Il a raconté : "La veuve du professeur, à laquelle j’ai fait une visite de condoléances, m’a raconté que le meurtrier avait tenté d’entrer dans la classe de son mari. Ce dernier a alors bloqué la porte, ce qui lui a valu d’être assassiné : par contre, tous ses étudiants ont été épargnés et lui doivent la vie".

La radio de l’armée a également recueilli le témoignage d’une jeune juive américaine travaillant au Bet Hillel du campus qui a assisté de loin au drame. Talia Mazor a indiqué qu’elle avait dû rester enfermée dans une classe pendant plus de trois heures avec pour instructions de s’éloigner des fenêtres. Après ce délai, les étudiants ont été avertis par haut-parleur qu’ils pouvaient sortir, et la plupart d’entre eux ont alors préféré rentrer chez eux. Talia Mazor a déclaré qu’elle connaissait plusieurs personnes qui avaient trouvé la mort dans la fusillade.

La jeune femme a aussi indiqué que les cours n’avaient pas lieu, ce mardi, mais que de nombreuses personnes avaient tenu à se rendre sur le campus par solidarité et que le président Bush était également attendu dans la journée. Elle a encore raconté que des jeunes Juifs s’étaient rassemblés, dans la nuit, à la synagogue, pour réciter des prières à l’intention des victimes, dont ils ne connaissaient pas encore l’identité, et se réconforter mutuellement.

Claire Dana Picard © Arouts7 en français

Evacuation des victimes durant l'attaque

Liviu Librescu, un homme de courage

11:44 | 18 avril, 2007

Joe Librescu, le fils du professeur en ingénérie de l'université Virginia Tech, en Virginie, aux Etats-Unis, abattu lors de la fusillade ayant eu lieu lundi 16 avril, a exprimé sa douleur et la fierté qu'il ressent envers son père. "C'est un homme unique de plusieurs points de vue", a-t-il déclaré dans une interview téléphonique avec le Jerusalem Post.

Professionnellement, "c'est l'un des meilleurs chercheurs du monde". Librescu a noté que son père "croyait en l'excellence et représentait une figure forte". "Il se voyait lui-même en tant qu'ambassadeur d'Israël dans cette partie du monde, dans une université américaine qui comprenait plusieurs Israéliens mais aussi beaucoup de représentants du monde arabe".

Liviu Librescu, 75 ans, a sauvé la vie de plusieurs étudiants en bloquant la porte d'entrée de sa salle de cours au forcené avant d'être lui-même abattu, ont raconté des membres de sa famille aux médias israéliens.

Le couple Liberscu avait émigré en Israël depuis la Roumanie en 1978 avant de partir pour la Virginie en 1986 où Librescu devait passer une année sabbatique. Mais le couple est resté depuis lors.

© Jerusalem Post édition française

Etudiantes en prière dans une église proche du lieu du drame.

Holocaust Survivor Killed At Virgina Tech Trying To Save Students Is One Of Many Heroic Stories We Will Hear From This Tragedy

By Michael Ireland Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

BLACKSBURG, VIRGINIA (ANS) -- An Israeli lecturer who died in the massacre at a U.S. university saved the lives of several students by blocking the doorway of his classroom from the approaching gunman before he was fatally shot, his son said Tuesday.

According to Fox News, students of Liviu Librescu, 76, a holocaust survivor who was an engineering science and mathematics lecturer at Virginia Tech for 20 years, sent e-mails to his wife, Marlena, telling of how he blocked the gunman's way and saved their lives, said the son, Joe.

"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Joe Librescu said in a telephone interview from his home outside of Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."

Liviu Librescu, was respected in his field, his son said.

"His work was his life in a sense," Joe Librescu said. "That was a good place for him to practice his research."

The couple immigrated to Israel from Romania in 1978 and then moved to Virginia in 1985 for his sabbatical, but had stayed since then, said Joe Librescu, who himself studied at the school from 1989 to 1994.

Meanwhile, in Romania, the academic community also was mourning Librescu's death.

"It is a great loss," said Ecaterina Andronescu, rector of the Polytechnic University in Bucharest, where Librescu graduated in mechanics and aviation construction in 1953. "We have immense consideration for the way he reacted and defended his students with his life."

He also received a Ph.D from the Bucharest-based Academy of Sciences in 1969, and received an honorary degree with the Polytechnic University in 2000.

At the Polytechnic University, his picture was put on a table and a candle was lit, and people lay flowers. "We remember him as a great specialist in aeronautics. He left behind hundreds of prestigious papers," said one of the professors, Nicolae Serban Tomescu.

Librescu, who specialized in composite structures and aeroelasticity, published extensively and received numerous awards for his work. He also received several NASA grants and also taught courses at the University "La Sapienza" of Rome, Italy, and at the Tel Aviv University in Israel.

In Monday's massacre, a gunman killed 32 people at the Virginia university before committing suicide. It was the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.

In an e-mail to ANS, Roberta Rogers writes: "My son John asked us to pray for Heidi Miller; her mother Lolly works with him at the Wellness Center in Harrisonburg, VA. Heidi was seriously wounded, was in surgery an hour or so ago in critical condition....just one 'real' name among the carnage at Virginia Tech."

Steve Clemons, who graduated from Virginia Tech, wrote to ANS: "I'm a Va Tech grad and just can't believe what has happened, and only live 40 miles from Blacksburg in Salem Va. As a Christian I still have trouble understanding how something like this can happen and am deeply grieved for everyone including the shooter. "

He adds: "May God bring His peace to everyone who was involved in this shooting. They will all be in my prayers for a long time to come. I just hope we can learn something, anything, from this that will help us prevent this from happening ever again. I read your emails daily and find them very uplifting. But this is a time when we must accept God's will even when we don't understand why."

Lisa Goddard, a CNN Radio Correspondent, said she saw three workers from the Salvation Army shopping for breakfast food for displaced students in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

On the Anderson Cooper 360 Blog she writes:"It's 1 a.m. in Blacksburg. The farmland surrounding the school is pitch-black, and dozens of restless people, weary of endless hours of news coverage or hospital vigils are at Wal-Mart.

"I'm here looking for socks, pj's and food (after living off the hard candy provided by Virginia Tech staff at their impromptu press center). But moving around the 24-hour superstore, I see the stories of the day.

"Richard White of the Roanoke office is smiling in his Salvation Army uniform but his eyes are turning red. "

David Kuo, writing on his blog J Walking at www.beliefnet.com/blogs/JWalking/2007/04/tune-out.html, titles his latest piece on the Virginia Tech shootings "Tune Out."

He writes: "Turn it off today. Turn off CNN and Fox and MSNBC. Don't go surfing for more information. Don't listen to all the people talking. Don't let the media do it for you.

"There is this temptation with our saturated news to immerse yourself in it because immersion feels like action, immersion feels involvement, immersion feels like empathy. Watching sobbing students and parents and doctors somehow makes us feel closer to this tragedy. But there is also an enormous risk to it as well - that it paralyzes us, absorbs all of our time, and prevents us from doing the things that we need to do to help those we can impact - those who are around us."

Kuo says that as a news junkie this is something of a novel concept to him,"But it is one that was encouraged by an email I got from a friend who runs a tutoring program. She wrote,' So many are asking what can we do to stop the continued random acts of violence. There are no easy answers, but I say to all of you..... each time you bring yourself through the doors of Immaculate Conception Church, on a Tuesday night... even after a long and tiring day..... that hour and half you spend with a child or young person, is the best ammunition we have against the enemies continued attempts to rob us of precious lives. Every open book. Every math problem solved. Every paragraph read. Every checker game played... serves to keep our kids safe as we love and nurture them and prayerfully bring them to a place where they will never be the one with a gun in their hands. Instead they will spend their lives being agents of peace.' "

Kuo continues: "Yet we can only do those things if we have time and the emotional and spiritual energy needed to give of ourselves. Surrounding ourselves with the unending symphony of horror around tragedies like this one a few hundred miles from me in Virginia robs us of that energy."

He asks his readers to, "Please hear what I am not saying. I am not saying we should be indifferent. I am not saying we shouldn't feel the horror of it. I am not saying we shouldn't feel everything we are feeling. I am saying that the best way for us to do that is to do it through prayer, do it through loving those around us, do it by living and not by listening. Our compassion is not directly related to our consumption of news about an event. There is stuff that we can do today... let's do it."

In a web search carried out by ANS, this reporter found a posting to the Internet by the Gospelcom Alliance, a network of 300+ Christian ministries working to spread the Gospel online. Each day, the Buzz brings you the best new and classic content from around the Alliance.

Responding to the Virginia Tech tragedy at www.gospelcom.net/buzz/?p=391, Gospelcom Alliance has posted resources to help shellshocked readers cope with the tragedy.

The Gospelcom site says: "News reports are still filtering in about (today's) school shooting at Virginia Tech. As the details emerge and as Gospelcom Alliance ministries respond to the shootings and the spiritual questions being raised, we'll post them here. Here are some early responses to the Virginia Tech tragedy, as well as related materials posted in response to school shootings in the past."

At the site there is a discussion of the shootings going on at the Youth Ministry Exchange forums (see: http://ymexchange.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=344&Itemid=1).

Youth Specialties has some excellent web resources on youth violence at: www.youthspecialties.com/free/web_violence.php.

Also on the site are links to some articles by Jim Watkins about dealing with school shootings and coping with death and grief, Peggie Bohanon's devotional responding to the Virginia Tech tragedy, and Bruce Narramore's essay "Why Teenagers Turn to Violence" in response to the Columbine shootings, which is still relevant today.

There are also links to "Violence: Is There a Way Out?" written primarily about Columbine, but which has some excellent insights into the nature of school violence and the steps we can take in response to it.

Columbine Redefined is a short Our Daily Bread devotional that challenges us to think differently about tragedies like Columbine and the Virginia shootings.

Terry Mattingly has a piece he wrote in the aftermath of Columbine, about spiritual questions and dimensions of the violence, and Stuart McAllister has an essay 'The Gravity of Our Disconnection' in response to school violence, which discusses the real reason that terrifying violence like this happens.

Quelques autres articles sur ce drame

>>> VIRGINIA--Nation reacts to mass killings in Va. (Baptist Press)
>>> VIRGINIA--Baptist grad student among 32 victims. (Baptist Press)
>>> VIRGINIA--Friends come together for comfort & healing. (Baptist Press)
>>> Bush: "Un jour de tristesse pour toute la nation" (TF1)

Assemblies of God-NEWS: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 Please send story leads to news@ag.org for consideration

** SPECIAL REPORT: Chi Alpha at Virginia Tech responds to tragedy

Chi Alpha Campus Pastor Jon Rice, who ministers to students at Virginia Tech with wife Jenny, shares none of his group injured or killed in Monday's shootings < but friends were. Tells how Chi Alpha is assisting school and students in the aftermath. In addition to providing counseling, Chi Alpha to join with other campus ministries in special service for student body tomorrow. Learn more about Chi Alpha at Virginia Tech at http://www.vtxa.com.

** SPECIAL REPORT: CHI ALPHA AT VIRGINIA TECH RESPONDS TO TRAGEDY

When the news of the killing of dozens of students at Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, Virginia) campus yesterday morning reached Chi Alpha Campus Pastors Jon and Jenny Rice, they reacted much like the rest of the 25,000-plus members of the campus body - shock.

"I was overwhelmed," says Jon Rice, who has been with Chi Alpha for four year and serving at Virginia Tech for two-and-a-half years. "My thoughts were disbelief mixed with fear."

Rice says that he and his wife also realized that students were now going to need a place just to go and "be."

"The first thing we did is we got everyone together last night at the Chi Alpha house for prayer and a time of community," Rice explains. "We started at 7 and went until 8:40 - then we had a time of community. Many of the students, including myself, hadn't eaten since breakfast."

Although Rice says that he believes none of their Chi Alpha group members were victims of the shootings, he has confirmed that at least one "great friend" of many of the Chi Alpha group members was killed by the shooter.

Along with being available to the Chi Alpha group, Rice and his wife are making themselves available to counsel other students through the Virginia Tech Dean of Students office. However, they're not alone - several AG pastors have also driven in to make themselves available to both students and faculty.

"A lot of the students are just in a state of shock right now," Rice says. "They really don't know how to respond - I think we'll be seeing a lot more students seeking help as time passes."

Rice says that he hopes to be able to visit the local hospital as well. Although the hospital is currently only allowing direct family members to visit those wounded in the shooting, Rice says he hopes that as clergy, he'll be able to visit and pray with family members and some of the injured.

For now, Rice says the Chi Alpha house will be open 24/7 for students to come. "We may not be able to be there around the clock, but there will always be someone who can help," he says.

"The school will be holding a convocation at 2 p.m. Eastern today for the entire university at Cassell Coliseum," Rice adds. "President Bush and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine will be there."

Rice says that in addition to today's convocation, the campus ministry groups will be hosting a combined service at noon tomorrow on the drill field outside of the War Memorial Chapel for the entire student body.

"We want to come together to show we're unified as the body of Christ," Rice says. "We want to serve the students however we can. The service won't be overly structured, but include a time of prayer and Scripture reading."

"We will have our regularly scheduled Wednesday night Chi Alpha service tomorrow," Rice says, his voice going quiet, "but it's going to be drastically different than we've ever had before."

The Assemblies of God national headquarters family joined with Rice in lifting the school up in prayer. Led by Assistant General Superintendent Charles T. Crabtree, hundreds of employees sought God for the injured, the sorrowing families, the school's leadership and the opportunity for the Holy Spirit to somehow work through this tragedy.

For more information about Chi Alpha, the Assembly of God ministry to secular college campuses, see http://chialpha.ag.org/. For more information about the Chi Alpha at Virginia Tech, see http://www.vtxa.com.

--Dan Van Veen