PERMANENT COLLECTION
Podcast Archive
PS 234 Teachers and Administrators Remember Evacuating School Children on 9/11
PS 234 is a public elementary school located in the community of Tribeca, only a few blocks north of the World Trade Center. Students, teachers, and other school personnel were just beginning one of the first days of school when the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11, 2001. As the disaster worsened, they were forced to evacuate from the school, holding hands and running for their lives as the dust and debris released with the collapse of the South Tower chased them up Greenwich Street. All made it safely to PS 41 in Greenwich Village—a long walk for the students. Listen to teachers and administrators from the school recall their day. Listen>>
Chief Robert Gray
An expert in rescuing survivors in collapsed buildings and other high risk situations, Chief Robert Gray of the Arlington, Virginia Fire Department led his department’s Technical Rescue Team in its search for survivors of the attack on the Pentagon. Over the course of the next few weeks, those skills were re-purposed toward shoring up damaged sections of the building to facilitate the recovery of the victims. Listen to Chief Gray describe working on the 12-hour night shift and his experiences at the Pentagon in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Listen>>
Catherine Leuthold
An independent photojournalist, Catherine Leuthold grabbed her camera and film and made her way downtown upon learning that a plane had hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Exiting the subway at City Hall, just a few blocks away, she immediately began to take pictures of the unimaginable scene of disaster that she had just entered. Listen to her describe what she saw and felt as she was caught in the collapse of the South Tower. Listen>>
Tanya Hoggard
Thousands of children’s letters and drawings sent to New York City firehouses after the 9/11 attacks are now part of the Museum’s permanent collection. Children from across the globe handmade most of the heartfelt gifts that make up the “Dear Hero” collection. Touched by this global response, Tanya Hoggard, a Delta airlines flight attendant who volunteered at the World Trade Center during the recovery, began preserving the items in early 2002 as fire stations began dismantling displays of the letters and drawings. Hoggard named the growing collection of hopeful and appreciative expressions the “Dear Hero” collection because that was often the salutation used by children in their notes and letters. The collection has been stored in Cincinnati, Ohio, and returned to New York City this week after nearly nine years. Listen>>
Frank Razzano
Washington, DC - based attorney, Frank Razzano, a registered guest of the World Trade Center Marriott Hotel, recently made an especially poignant donation. After being unexpectedly roused from sleep by a series of bangs, Razzano hurriedly left his room, taking nothing with him as he escaped the disaster scene. Months later, the jacket that Razzano had planned to wear that morning was salvaged at Ground Zero and returned to him by the NYPD WTC Property Recovery Unit. Razzano recounted his journey to safety in a recorded interview for NS11MM and donated his salvaged personal effects to the Museum as a symbol of his survival. Listen >>
Bruno Dellinger
A World Trade Center survivor, Bruno Dellinger managed his small company from an office on the 47th floor of the north tower, providing art consultation services and developing commercial and cultural ties between New York and various regions in France, his home country. Thrown off balance when the hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 struck the building, Dellinger insisted that his employees evacuate at once, but remained behind to put things in order before he left. Listen as he recalls the first stages of his journey to safety, describing fellow survivors making way for injured civilians in the stairwell and the collapse of the south tower moments after he arrived at street level. Listen >>
Julia Frey
Julia Frey lived on the 26th floor of Liberty Court on the far eastern side of 200 Rector Street. On the morning of September 11th, 2001, Frey and her husband Ron Sukenick were going about their morning routine when they heard loud noises which she thought might have been fireworks. As she looked out her window Julia realized that the sounds came from windows at the WTC exploding from the heat. Fearing that the towers might fall onto their home, Julia and Ron decided that they would be safer outside. Julia describes their decision to leave, knowing that health problems made it difficult for Ron to walk without assistance. Walking south on the esplanade along the Hudson River, Julia describes the collapse of the Twin Towers and the dust cloud that enveloped the area, watching people evacuate by boat, and the dozens of individuals who stopped to offer help. Hours later, the couple returned home. The electricity was out, but their telephone still worked. With the hot water still running, they were able to wash off the film of dust that covered them. Exhausted but unable to sleep, Julia recalls looking out onto the devastation below and seeing candles placed in the windows of other residents like them who had returned home. Although the couple wished to remain in their own home, they and their other remaining neighbors were evacuated the next day. Listen >>
Rita Calvo
Rita Calvo, a downtown resident, was in class at her Upper West Side high school when the news broke that the towers at the World Trade Center had been hit. She remembers anxiously trying to phone her parents to see if her home had been damaged by the collapse of the buildings. After finally reaching her father, she left school to go home. Among other memories of that day, Rita describes her father’s attempts to maintain a sense of normalcy for the family in the midst of the unfolding emergency and how the Twin Towers were very much the anchor for downtown. Listen >>
Dianne DeFontes
A receptionist at a law firm on the 89th floor of the North Tower, Dianne DeFontes felt the impact of Flight 11 strike the building a few floors above her desk. As she and her colleagues prepared to evacuate, taking time to make phone calls to loved ones, a long-time employee of the Port Authority familiar with the inner workings of the World Trade Center quickly ushered the group to a distant stairwell, where he and a co-worker had broken through a jammed door. In her oral history, Dianne recalls the vital assistance provided by Frank DiMartini and Pablo Ortiz, who lost their lives helping others, and her long descent through stairwells that were at times dark, smoky, and wet.
Unbeknownst to Dianne, Matthew Farley, partner in charge of the office, had been trying to track the fate of all of the firm’s employees presumed to be at the WTC that morning, frantically communicating with others via BlackBerry. Eventually learning that Dianne had survived and arrived home much later that evening, he e-mailed his staff with relief: “Dianne is ok. We’re 16 for 16.” Dianne donated the flashlight that she had in her purse and the smoke and water stained clothing she wore to the office on that September morning to the Memorial Museum. Matthew Farley gave the BlackBerry and its associated e-mail trail to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
Listen>>
Arturo Ressi
As a young engineer, Arturo Ressi oversaw construction of the World Trade Center “slurry wall,” used to prevent Hudson River water from leaking into the basement of the Twin Towers. When the Towers collapsed on September 11, 2001, Ressi was both shocked and gratified to learn that the wall had survived intact. According to Ressi, the wall "wanted to stay up," and had it been breached, the loss of life would have grown exponentially worse. In his oral history, Ressi also describes the strength of the 450-million year old Manhattan Schist bedrock that makes the soaring skyline of New York City possible. Listen >>
Mindy Kombert & Sherry Kronenfeld
Inspired by the faces they saw in the missing persons flyers proliferating in New York City after the attack on the World Trade Center, Westchester-based graphic designers Mindy Kombert and Sherry Kronenfeld decided to create a memorial flag that would feature the faces of those who were killed. Using photographs contributed by victims’ families and companies that had suffered significant losses on 9/11, they created the Flag of Remembrance, a unique hand-stitched flag measuring 20-feet high by 27-feet wide. Listen >>
Ken Feinberg
Attorney Kenneth R. Feinberg served as Special Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, which was created by Congress to provide economic relief to the families of those killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks, as well as to those who were physically injured that day. Over the course of nearly three years, the fund awarded approximately $7 billion dollars to those who chose to participate. In this podcast, excerpted from a longer interview, Feinberg describes the significance of this unique endeavor and discusses the many personal meetings and formal hearings he and his staff conducted with survivors and family members in order to learn about the lives of those impacted. Listen >>
Guy Tozzoli
Guy Tozzoli, a career Port Authority employee, was responsible for planning, design, construction, leasing, and the ultimate start-up operation of the World Trade Center. Listen to his account of the rise and fall of one of the greatest construction efforts ever undertaken. Listen >>
Charles Maikish
Beginning as a college engineering student, Charles Maikish spent nearly his entire career at the World Trade Center, with diverse responsibilities for managing the building. In honor of the 15th anniversary of the February 26, 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Maikish shared his memories of the bombing and the memorial created in honor of the people killed. Listen >>
Mike Hurley
Director of the Fire Safety at the World Trade Center on September 11, veteran Port Authority employee Michael Hurley was supervisor of the South Tower’s 107th floor observation deck on February 26, 1993, when terrorists detonated a bomb in the Trade Center’s underground parking garage. Listen >>
Lieutenant Mickey Kross
FDNY Lt. Kross was with Engine 16, responding to the fires at the World Trade Center, on September 11, 2001. Listen to his harrowing and uplifting account of surviving the collapse of the North Tower. Listen >>
Tom Canavan
Tom Canavan was a securities specialist working in a bank on the 47th floor of the North Tower. While trying to evacuate the building, he became trapped in the WTC underground shopping mall as the South Tower collapsed. Canavan escaped to safety via a stairwell that has come to be known as the “Survivors’ Stairs.” Listen >>
Adrienne Walsh
Off duty on the morning of September 11, 2001, firefighter Adrienne Walsh responded to the WTC with the second wave of fire fighters to leave FDNY’s Ladder Company 20 on Lafayette Street in Soho. In this interview, Walsh, now a lieutenant, recalls the fall of the North Tower. Listen >>
Brian Van Flandern
On September 11, 2001, Brian Van Flandern witnessed the attack on the World Trade Center on television from his girlfriend’s home in Queens. Trained as an EMT, he made his way to the disaster site on that day, seeking to help in any way he could. Listen >>
Matt Higgins
In the minutes following the attacks on the World Trade Center, New York City Mayor Giuliani called for a press conference to disseminate information to the public about the unfolding disaster. Matt Higgins, the Mayor’s Press Secretary, and his colleagues organized a press conference on a street corner near the Trade Center where the Mayor was being briefed by the Fire and Police Departments. With the burning towers only a couple blocks away, Higgins and his colleagues decided to move the press conference from this potentially vulnerable location. Listen >> >
Hazem & Liz Gamal
Hazem Gamal worked in the South Tower of the World Trade Center and walked through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel covered in dust and debris after witnessing the collapse of his office building; Liz recounts hours of worry as she waited to receive word that he had made it to safety.
Listen >> Liz's Story
Listen >> Hazem's Story
Listen >> Recovered Letters
The Gamals recall their experiences and describe receiving a package of correspondence that somehow survived the devastation and was returned to them by a concerned construction worker who preserved the papers not knowing whether their owner had perished in the attack.
Jack Trabitz
Since the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, approximately 27,000 pieces of personal property have been recovered from Ground Zero and the Staten Island evidence recovery site. New York City Deputy Police Chief Trabitz discusses the monumental forensic undertaking of the World Trade Center Property Operation, which is charged with safeguarding, identifying, decontaminating, cataloguing and returning objects to their rightful owners and to relatives of those who perished, regardless of the object’s value or condition. Listen >>
Rosemarie O’Keefe
As the Commissioner of Community Assistance under New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Rosemarie O’Keefe created the 9/11 Family Assistance Center, a place where victims’ family members could find information and support. O’Keefe describes the genesis of the Family Center and the spirit of compassion, respect, and warmth that prevailed there. Listen >>
Dr. Artie Gudeon
Dr. Arthur Gudeon, a podiatrist and native of New York City, volunteered his medical services to help first responders working in the rescue and recovery effort at ground zero. After initiating an email campaign, he was able to gather podiatrists around the world to provide around the clock care at St. Paul’s Chapel. In this podcast, he speaks of his experience as a volunteer treating the injuries of recovery workers, and developing close relationships with the community of volunteers at the site. Listen >>
John Whitehead
A veteran Wall Street executive, John Whitehead was appointed to chair the newly established Lower Manhattan Development Corporation after September 11, 2001, where he oversaw preliminary planning for the Memorial & Museum. Listen >>
