Our Savior is welcoming him in Heaven with open arms: "Well done, good and faithful servant."
Posted on 09/07/2004 7:15:10 PM PDT by NavySEAL F-16
Hebrew Press
Yanis Kanidis -- A Hero
I mentioned this story from the Hebrew press yesterday, hoping that someone would point me to a link where the story was told in English. So far, nobody has found it, so I decided to translate the Yediot Aharonot story myself. This man deserved to be remembered and admired by as many people as possible.
The story was written by Dimitri Prokopiev and Natasha Mozgobia
The Teacher Chose Death
In an act of unlimited devotion and dedication, to the bitter end, an elderly teacher insisted on remaining with his students. He protected them, bandaged their wounds, and with his death, saved their lives.
Children who escaped from the school told of how they owed their lived to elderly Yanis (Ivan) Kanidis, age 74 – a man of Greek origin who worked as a gym teacher at the school. He was among the hundreds of teachers, students and parents taken hostage last week when Chechen rebels invaded the large school.
On Thursday, in what was an unusual humanitarian move in the midst of the horror, the terrorists agreed to allow a group of women and babies to leave the building. The commander of the terrorist squad, saw Kanidis -- a sickly elderly man -- and offered to allow him to walk free as well.
But Kanidis refused. “I will stay with my students till the end,” the teacher insisted.
“Whatever you say,” said the terrorist, dismissing him with a wave of the hand.
“He was just like Janus Korzchak, who accompanied his pupils to Auschwitz,” said one of the students who was saved.
Like Korzchak, Kanidis didn’t just accompany his students, he guarded their lives. On Friday, when the children began to lose consciousness from the stuffy air and their thirst, Yanis went to the terrorists. “You have to give them something to drink, at least to the smallest children,” he insisted angrily. One of the terrorists hit him with the butt of his rifle, but the teacher continued to yell: “How dare you!? You claim you are people of the Kafkaz region, but here in the Kafkaz even a dog wouldn’t turn down the request of an old man!”
His efforts bore fruit. The terrorist allowed the teacher to wet one of the bibs of the children and pass it around to dampen the mouths of the little ones who were choking from thirst.
The hostages who escaped told how the teacher repeatedly risked his own life in order to save the children. He moved explosive devices that the terrorists had placed near the young students, and tried to prevent them from detonating others. When the first bomb exploded next to the windows of the school, parents and children began to run out. The terrorists, trying to prevent their escape, threw a grenade at them. The elderly teacher ran to the grenade to prevent it from exploding on the children. One of the terrorists shot at the teacher to try to stop him and Yanis was wounded in the shoulder – but didn’t give up. With the last of his strength, he continued to run, jumped on the grenade, covering it with his body. The grenade exploded, and the body of the teacher absorbed the explosion, protecting the children around him from injury.
Posted by allisonks at September 7, 2004 02:32 PM | TrackBack
This is not meant to take from the article and hero in any way!
I wonder if the communist NEA would allow US teachers to do such acts or would their contracts and insurance be void.
BUMP and echoing your thoughts.
This man is a true hero. God bless him for protecting those children.
The greatest evil of the USSR was preventing the people from knowing God. I read the other day that there was much praying inside that building by the hostages and those who did not know how were taught. I have no doubts that this man was teaching others to pray and leading them to God in the last hours of his and their lives.
That is one helluva man. They don't make too many like that anymore.
Thank you for the ping
Certainly he was a great man, but the majority of the town was already Christian, fyi. 98% of North Ossetia is Russian Orthodox.
seen this one ping?
That NPR gave that woman's story and not the story of Yanis, condemns them more fully than anything I could say. Why do we allow Bush to fund them?
bump!
This horrific struggle will produce heroes too, as did the Holocaust.
May we remember the name of Yanis Kanidis.
Yes, these names belong together on the beginning of what will prove to be a Long Memorial to those who, without weapons, did their own kind of fighting and dying against this accursed enemy.
Our Savior is welcoming him in Heaven with open arms: "Well done, good and faithful servant."
"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. . . . I have called you friends . . . "
—John 15:13, 15
A reminder: Greeks gave been fighting Islam for over 1300 years.
But indeed, God Bless this selfless man of peace.
Yep, God bless the teachers who would fight.
Dear God. It seems uncommon valor worked overtime. Lord, grant him peace and his crown.
Beautifully said! Thanks!
And he was by far not the only martyr at Beslan.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.