Library of Congress Receives Oral Histories of 9/11 Responders

Some 200 accounts provided by emergency responders to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks will be available in the Library of Congress.

The American Folklife Center will be home to the “Remembering 9/11 Oral History Project,” the Library of Congress said Friday. Included in the collection are the oral histories—some more than an hour long—and more than 1,000 photographs, manuscripts, logbooks and indexes involving the teams of rescue workers who responded to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Dr. Benjamin Luft donated the collection. Luft, as a physician at the Stony Brook University School of Medicine, treated many of those responding to the tragedy and believes his gift will resonate with visitors.

“It comes at a time of great anxiety considering the recent repeated terrorist attacks on our soil and elsewhere in the world,” Luft in a statement. “These stories are the responders’ gift to our nation, now and for generations to come. Listening to them, with their descriptions of courage, love, sacrifice and survival, inspires us and informs us on how we need to be unified and care for one another during this time of unease.”

The American Folklife Center is also home to personal narratives about Sept. 11 that were gathered from around the country and donated to the Library of Congress under the StoryCorps project.