The MEMO Blog

Our new blog series "In Their Own Voices" is an expansion of the Q&As we published in May to mark the 20th anniversary of the formal end to rescue and recovery operations at Ground Zero. This monthly series will continue to highlight the diversity and previously unimaginable undertaking of the rescue and recovery community. In its first installment, the Port Authority Police Department's John Ryan tells us about his involvement and his perspectives more than two decades later. 

We're thrilled to announce the return this summer of the Art Cart, offering visitors with children free self-guided activities that shed light on the story of 9/11 and uncover unique design elements of the Memorial Plaza.

Works by the Dutch artist Frank Dammers and the American artist Derek Fordjour are newly on view in our Education Center gallery, each infused with definitive post-9/11 themes and its own backstory.   

Alice Greenwald, President and CEO, and Clifford Chanin, Executive Vice President and Deputy Director of Museum Programs, talk about the ways their experience with the 9/11 Memorial helped inform the design of Norway's memorial to those killed on the island of Utøya in 2011. 

Yurii Savchuk, director of Kyiv's National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, built a remarkable "living" exhibit about the war in his country - in just a month. Earlier this week, we welcomed him and Maria Shust, director of the Ukrainian Museum in NYC, for a special visit. 

Dr. Alison Thompson, a 9/11 first responder, brought a little brightness to soldiers in war-torn Ukraine, when she delivered Stars of Hope that were hand-painted by Memorial & Museum staff in a gesture of support. 

On May 30, a special ceremony marked the 20th anniversary of the official end to formal rescue and recovery efforts at Ground Zero. Governor Kathy Hochul, Congressman Jerry Nadler, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, and first responder and advocate John Feal all spoke before an audience including members of the many agencies and organizations involved in the unprecedented operations after the attacks. 

Fleet Week 2002 - during which members of the USS Iwo Jima looked on as the Last Column was cut down - has come to stand as symbol of resilience after 9/11. Twenty years later, with Fleet Week 2022 upon us, we look back at its significance. 

The rescue and recovery efforts - which officially came to an end 20 years ago on May 30 - had many arms. Lila Nordstrom parlayed her experience as a high school student on 9/11 into a life of health care advocacy. In today's post, the author and activist - who fought to ensure lower Manhattan students were covered under the Zadroga Act - shares her motivational story.   

Anthony Palmieri, a Department of Sanitation worker, was uptown the morning of September 11th and managed to make it home to New Jersey later that day. But it wasn't long before he was back in the city, playing an integral role in the rescue and recovery effort at Ground Zero. Here, Palmieri answers some questions about the nine months he spent there and what May 30th means to him.