The first thing he heard was a sudden sound, like a rush of wind: "woosh!"
Christopher Hardej was 41 years old and had arrived at work at the New York City Transportation Authority half an hour earlier. He had settled down in his usual place, with his back to the window. The time was 8:46.
- Immediately after the sound, it was as if the entire skyscraper bent backwards. Then it bounced back again, he says.
We meet Hardej at the large memorial site that was completed in 2011, ten years after the attacks that changed the United States. Two square sunken basins symbolize the two towers. Along the edge in bronze, the names of the 2,977 victims are engraved.
Hardej goes here regularly and knows exactly which names he's looking for: Ignatius Adanga, Charles Lesperance and See Wong Shum. The three colleagues who chose not to accompany him down the stairs that day.
He cups his hands, scoops up some of the water flowing under the bronze rim, and gently strokes it over the three names.
- This is my therapy. To remember those who were lost, to talk about what happened.
Christopher Hardej is convinced that it was his military training that enabled him to survive the attack. He says he acted as if on autopilot.
- The plane flew in only 50 meters above us, even if we didn't know it at the time. As we started to make our way down the stairs, me and two of my colleagues, I noticed that there was no one coming from the floors above us.
In fact, very few from a floor as high as the 82nd made it out alive.
At 9:03 a.m., the second plane hit the WTC's south tower. By then, Hardej and his colleagues were already around floor 60.
- There was total congestion, it was hardly possible to get around. At the same time, we met firemen on their way up.
- I looked them in the eyes and they looked back. What do you say in such a situation? Good luck?
He didn't know it at the time, but at the same time, dozens of desperate people were throwing themselves from the highest floors of the skyscrapers to certain death.
As if by a miracle, Hardej managed to get out with his colleagues. From a place a few blocks away, they heard and saw how first the south, then the north tower collapsed.
- My first thought was that my wife must know that I am alive. So I sought out every single cameraman I could find, he says.
On television around the world, the images of the fleeing survivors were shown, covered in gray dust like a kind of human statues. Christopher Hardej appeared on such a sequence.
- Even relatives in England had seen me, and several of my neighbors. But do you think someone called my wife? No.
A trauma like September 11 can be handled in different ways. Christopher Hardej did so by becoming part of the "war on terror" that then-President George W. Bush launched five days after the attacks on the United States.
At the end of September, he was on a military plane bound for the Middle East. As a member of the United States National Guard, attached to the Air Force, he has commanded a force that seeks out and rescues American soldiers behind enemy lines.
He has been in combat zones many times.
- I could have easily refused because of my experiences on September 11. But I did the opposite. For me, the war on terror became personal.
- And ironically, the terrorist attack made me feel somehow immortal when I was part of the war. I don't say that lightly.
George W Bush's war on Iraq was waged on false premises - the link between the dictator Saddam Hussein and the terrorists of al-Qaeda was a chimera. And the long war in Afghanistan ended in 2021 with an American retreat, after which al-Qaeda's ally the Taliban returned to power.
"This place is holy ground to me, I want politics out of here."
Hardej still does not want to criticize Bush.
- We had to do something. The terrorists trained quite openly in some countries. They didn't like us Americans. And the war on terror was largely being waged over there.
Today, Hardej is 66 years old and has retired. Like many war veterans, he is a conservative man, I notice that when we talk. But he doesn't really want to talk politics.
9/11 and the annual commemorations have long been "non-political". When family members and others gather, it is meant to be a moment of reflection.
All the names of the dead are read out. Bells are ringing. Politicians are allowed to attend, but no speeches are allowed.
Not unexpectedly, there are people who want to politicize memory. When Zohran Mamdani, New York's socialist mayor, declared that he intended to attend the ceremony this year, some were angered.
Mamdani has not planned to speak at the World Trade Center, but the mere fact that he is Muslim angers some. A list of names has been signed by at least 89,000 people, demanding that the mayor be banned.
The conservative tabloid New York Post and some local television channels have made a big deal of this, claiming that relatives of the victims are against Mamdani's participation. But in fact, the overwhelming majority of those who have signed the list do not appear to belong to so-called "9/11 families."
At the same time, it has emerged that President Trump planned to attend the 25th anniversary ceremony, and then give a speech - which would therefore violate established practice.
When it became apparent that the organizers were not prepared to change the rules, however, Trump backed out, and now plans instead to give a Memorial Day speech at the Pentagon outside Washington, which was also attacked by terrorists on the same day.
When I ask Christopher Hardej what he thinks of this debate, he replies:
- This place is sacred ground for me, I want politics to be kept away from here. Let him give a speech at the Pentagon. Then I say nothing more.
Many remember how Trump acted on September 11, 2001. He was then a local New York celebrity in his role as a real estate magnate.
A radio station called and asked for a comment on what had just happened. Trump's response was a boastful exposition that a building he himself owned, 40 Wall Street, was now the tallest skyscraper in lower Manhattan—since the two WTC towers were gone.
As usual, everything was about himself. And that is surely exactly what the organizers of the memorial day feared would happen if the president had been allowed to speak at Friday's ceremony.
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