The USA remembered the victims 25 years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 with minutes of silence, tolling of bells and light installations. The focus of the memorial events was once again the places that were attacked at the time: the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon near Washington, as well as a field in the US state of Pennsylvania where a plane had crashed.
At Ground Zero in New York, the site of the destroyed twin towers of the World Trade Center, relatives read out the names of those killed. Six minutes of silence marked, among other things, the impacts of the two planes and the collapse of the towers. For the first time, a seventh minute of silence was planned for people who later died of illnesses or injuries as a result of the attacks.
Former US Presidents Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush also took part in the memorial event in New York. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump remembered the victims at a memorial event at the Pentagon.
100 million Americans have no memory of 9/11
In the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, almost 3,000 people died when terrorists from the Islamist network Al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger planes and piloted two of them into the towers of the World Trade Center. Another plane hit the Pentagon – headquarters of the Defense Department – near Washington.
A fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers resisted the hijackers. It is still unclear what the hijackers' goal was with this machine. At the crash site, artists dedicated chalk portraits to the inmates on the anniversary.
The New York Fire Department (FDNY) wanted to commemorate the more than 300 firefighters who died at numerous guard stations in the city. More than 400 additional fire department members have since died from illnesses related to the World Trade Center collapse, according to the FDNY. 2,753 empty chairs are set up in New York's Bryant Park - one for each of the New York victims. Flowers can be placed on the chairs or messages can be left.
As in previous years, Trump declared September 11th “Patriot Day” and ordered the flags at federal buildings to be flown at half-mast in memory of the victims. About 100 million Americans alive today - about a third of the population - were either too young to remember the attacks or not yet born, according to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
More deaths from long-term consequences than from attacks themselves
25 years after the attacks, the number of people suffering from the health consequences of the attacks continues to grow. According to the US government, the number of people who have died as a result of illnesses related to 9/11 has now far exceeded the number of those killed in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.
The collapse of the approximately 400 meter high towers and the ongoing fires created a highly toxic mixture of powdered concrete, glass, plasterboard, burnt plastics and other pollutants in Lower Manhattan. Tens of thousands of emergency services, helpers, residents and employees were exposed to the dust and smoke. The federal World Trade Center Health Program now cares for more than 150,000 people with possible consequences of this exposure.
The commemoration in New York was accompanied by a political dispute over Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who took part in the memorial event at Ground Zero. Relatives of some of the victims had previously called in a petition for him to stay away. The initiators accuse him, among other things, of not distancing himself clearly enough from statements that were perceived as extremist. Others criticized this as campaigning and anti-Muslim racism against Mamdani, who is the city's first Muslim mayor.
