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September 11, 2001: Survivor's Stories

Internet Resources

The Stories They Tell

Family members, survivors, first responders and recovery workers discuss the 9/11 history they are helping to preserve through the material they have shared with the 9/11 Memorial Museum.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9IND_17A8dlPWNhFXnzQ_Zua_q8XlU8C

Man In Red Bandana

On September 11th, 2001, Welles was 24 years old working in the South Tower of the World Trade Center. During the 56 minutes that the tower burned, Welles performed extraordinary actions of valor and courage, and paid the ultimate sacrifice while saving the lives of, at least, 10 people.

Source: Kanopy

Code Yellow: Hospital at Ground Zero

A feature documentary, produced in association with NYU Downtown Hospital, narrated by Brian Dennehy, and written by Dennis Watlington and Dr. Antonio Dejar, which tells the story of the remarkable medical response of the hospital closest to Ground Zero on 9/11.

Source: Kanopy

The Second Day

On September 11, 2001, 4 year-old Brook Peters was attending his second day of kindergarten a few blocks from the World Trade Center in New York City when two planes struck the Twin Towers.

At age 11, Brook decided to make a film about that fateful day and its aftermath to give his fellow students and teachers at Ground Zero area schools a chance to share with the world their experiences. THE SECOND DAY is his touching and inspirational documentary, completed when he was 14. The film provides a unique and hopeful perspective on 9/11 through the eyes of young people and educators who lived through it.

Source: Kanopy

Perspectives

Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust at Ground Zero

Faith.  Trust.  Triumph. "I trust Roselle with my life, every day. She trusts me to direct her. And today is no different, except the stakes are higher." ?Michael Hingson First came the boom'the loud, deep, unapologetic bellow that seemed to erupt from the very core of the earth. Eerily, the majestic high-rise slowly leaned to the south. On the seventy-eighth floor of the World Trade Center's north tower, no alarms sounded, and no one had information about what had happened at 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001?what should have been a normal workday for thousands of people. All that was known to the people inside was what they could see out the windows: smoke and fire and millions of pieces of burning paper and other debris falling through the air. Blind since birth, Michael couldn't see a thing, but he could hear the sounds of shattering glass, falling debris, and terrified people flooding around him and his guide dog, Roselle. However, Roselle sat calmly beside him. In that moment, Michael chose to trust Roselle's judgment and not to panic. They are a team. Thunder Dog allows you entry into the isolated, fume-filled chamber of stairwell B to experience survival through the eyes of a blind man and his beloved guide dog. Live each moment from the second a Boeing 767 hits the north tower, to the harrowing stairwell escape, to dodging death a second time as both towers fold into the earth. It's the 9/11 story that will forever change your spirit and your perspective. Thunder Dog illumiates Hingson's lifelong determination to achieve parity in a sighted world, and how the rare trust between a man and his guide dog can inspire an unshakable faith in each one of us.

Middletown, America

The single event that we know as 9/11 is over, but the shock waves continue to radiate outward, generated by orange alerts, terrorism lockdowns, and the shrinking of personal liberties we once took for granted. The stories in this book, of real people faced with extraordinary trauma and gradually transcending it, are the best antidote to our fears. Middletown, America is a book of hope. All Americans were hit with some degree of trauma on September 11, 2001, but no place was hit harder than Middletown, New Jersey. Gail Sheehy spent the better part of two years walking the journey from grief toward renewal with fifty members of the community that lost more people in the World Trade Center than any other outside New York City. Her subjects are the women, men, and children who remained after the devastation and who are putting their lives back to-gether. Sheehy tells the story of four widowed moms from New Jersey who started out scarcely knowing the difference between the House and the Senate, yet turned their sorrow and anger into action and became formidable witnesses to the failures of the country’s leadership to connect the dots before September 11. Sheehy follows the four moms as they fight White House attempts to thwart the independent commission investigating 9/11 and expose efforts at a cover-up. What would become of the young wives carrying children their husbands would never see, wives who had watched their dreams literally go up in smoke in that amphitheater of death across the river? Amazingly, each finds her own door to the light. Here, too, is the story of the widow and widower who met in the waiting room of a mental-health agency and brought each other back from the brink of despair across a bridge of love. Sheehy also reveals how bereft mothers who will never have another son or daughter found reasons to recommit to life. And she follows in the footsteps of the robbed children, documenting the incredible resilience of four-year-olds, the anger of teenagers, the courage of sisters and brothers. Sheehy follows survivors who escaped the burning towers only to find themselves trapped inside a tower of inner torment, from which it took love, family, and faith to free themselves. She is taken into the confi-dence of the night crew at Ground Zero, police officers who worked in that pit for eight months straight and then faced the “returning home” phenomenon. She recounts the confessions of religious leaders who struggled to explain the inexplicable to their flocks. Mental-health professionals confide in her, as do corporate chiefs, educators, friends and neigh-bors, town officials, and volunteers who rose to the occasion and committed themselves to healing their wounded community. As a journalist who conducted more than nine hundred interviews, Gail Sheehy is an impeccable researcher. As a writer with a novelistic gift, she weaves the individual stories into a compelling narrative. Middletown, America illuminates every stage of a tumultuous passage—from shock, passivity, and panic attacks, to rising anger and deep grieving, and on to the secret romances and startling relapses, the realignment of faith, the return of a capacity to love and be loved, and, finally, the commitment to constructing new lives. From the Hardcover edition.

In My Seat: A Pilot's Story from Sept 10-11th

"Steve Scheibner went to bed September 10, 2001, with his bags packed and ready to go. He was scheduled to be the pilot on "American Airlines Flight 11 the next day. When he woke in the morning, however, a rare last-minute substitution meant 'someone else' would pilot that plane--the first plane that hit the World Trade Center on 9/11.... His powerful and moving testimony of God's providence will inspire you to examine your own life in light of eternity."--P. [4] of cover.

Instinct: The Man Who Stopped the 20th Hijacker

This title tells the story of one of the handful of American border guards who was doing his job thoroughly and professional before 9/11. It explains why Jose Melendez Perez was refused entry into the United States in August, 2001 and how, if he had been allowed in, he would have been the fifth hijacker on flight United 93.

Mecca and Main Street: Muslim Life in America after 9/11

Islam is Americas fastest growing religion, with more than six million Muslims in the United States, all living in the shadow of 9/11. Who are our Muslim neighbors? What are their beliefs and desires? How are they coping with life under the War on Terror? In Mecca and Main Street, noted author and journalist Geneive Abdo offers illuminating answers to these questions. Gaining unprecedented access to Muslim communities in America, she traveled across the country, visiting schools, mosques, Islamic centers, radio stations, and homes. She reveals a community tired of being judged by American perceptions of Muslims overseas and eager to tell their own stories. Abdo brings these stories vividly to life, allowing us to hear their own voices and inviting us to understand their hopes and their fears. Inspiring, insightful, tough-minded, and even-handed, this book will appeal to those curious (or fearful) about the Muslim presence in America. It will also be warmly welcomed by the Muslim community.

Boatlift - An Untold Tale of 9/11 Resilience

From the midst of 9/11, one of the darkest moments in American history, comes this inspiring and relatively unknown story. When the twin towers fell, hundreds of thousands of people ran to the water's edge. They soon realized that Manhattan is, indeed, an island. And that they were trapped. Within moments, an armada of every vessel that could get to the city's seawall spontaneously organized. Dashing into the teeth of danger, hundreds of boats pulled together and, without any formal planning, military or otherwise, they pulled off an ad-hoc sea evacuation that became the largest in history. Their story of courage and resolve reminds us of the powerful spirit that rose among us, on that fateful day. Narrated by Tom Hanks.

Source: Kanopy

In the Shadow of the Towers: Stuyvesant High on 9/11

When the Twin Towers were attacked on September 11, 2001, students had just started their day at Stuyvesant High School, a few blocks away. Through intimate conversations with eight individuals who were there, IN THE SHADOW OF THE TOWERS: STUYVESANT HIGH ON 9/11 offers a unique perspective on that tragic day.

Source: Kanopy