Posted on 09/10/2004 8:58:48 AM PDT by Chuck N
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.
UPDATE: Some doubt has been cast on the story of Kanidis jumping on a grenade, based on this report in the English-language Greek press.
Kanidis was shot by the gunmen when he tried to dismantle a ceiling fan in the school gym, where the hostages were being held, which had been wired to an explosive device.
This is definitely possible -- Israeli newspapers are not known for their exhaustive fact-checking. I'm still convinced the full story is out there somewhere -- probably in the Greek-language press. I see that one of the commenters on this blog had been following the story on Greek television.
Anyway, in my book, even if Kanidis was "merely" killed by a gunshot while trying to dismantle an explosive device near the children, his story is still incredibly heroic.
I saw that article about a week and a half ago here on FR, but I have to say thanks for posting it again anyway. Very amazing story of an even more amazing man.
The Roman Catholic church should canonize him now.
If the children say He saved their lives, I choose to believe them, and not some Blog... anyone can say anything even here.
He was a Greek Christian..He posessed compassion and True Spiritual Knowlege.. Not like the Deamon posessed murderers
Who Killed the Children.
The supreme beauty of it all is that Yanis Kanidis and Todd Beamer are people just like us. Heroism and goodness are inherent in people.
A stark contrast to the filthy old men of Islam who collect money for preaching hatred, slaughter, and suicide-for-sex to the young and vulnerable, while sending their own children out of harms way.
Give rest, O Lord, to your servant Janis, that he may find with you a place in paradise, where the choirs of the saints and the just will shine forth like stars.
Eternal memory and blessed repose.
The blood of these innocent martyrs stinks to High Heaven.
I have every confidence that the Lord will avenge them.
God bless this man.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Amen.
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