The United States is preparing to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks. For survivors, the pain is still deep.
If Americans struggle to forget the attacks of September 11, 2001, for victims, the pain is even more acute. “It’s like it happened, I was very lucky to survive”, testifies Mary Jos, one of the survivors. At 9:03 am (US time), the second plane had just hit the second tower on the same floor where Mary Jos was. “When I woke up, no one was moving around me anymore, I thought everyone was dead. And besides, I think so.”, she adds. She will descend 78 floors at high speed that day, an action that will allow her to get out alive.
Will Jimeno is also a survivor of the attacks. He was not in one of the towers, but was part of the police responsible for rescuing the victims. “I saw people throwing themselves, sometimes alone, sometimes holding hands. The last one who jumped threw his arms on the cross, like Jesus who was going to be crucified”, he testifies. The first of the two towers collapses and falls on him. It will sound like a hundred freight trains crushing your face. “I suffered for several hours and saw my colleague and friend die before my eyes”, he says emotionally. To Loïc de La Mornais, journalist for France Télévisions, in a duplex in New York (U.S), the ceremony will be placed under the sign of bitterness. On the tenth anniversary, Americans can be content with the death of Osama bin Laden, former head of the al-Qaeda terrorist network. Today, it is above all a sense of waste that accompanies Americans after soldiers leave Afghanistan.