01x01 - 8:00 AM - 9:07 AM

[bunniefuu]

There's not a day gone by
in 25 years that I haven't

thought about 9/11.

[♪ somber music playing]

On that day, I saw the
absolute worst of humanity and

the absolute best of
people who responded.

That day, he decides to
risk his life to save me.

Who does that?

I fell into his arms.

It's like "I got you,
I got you."

But I never saw him or
heard of him again.

I would just love to thank
him more than anything else.

The firefighter was
my one and only patient.

He lifted me up when I
couldn't lift myself up.

Out of nowhere, he says to me,

"My wife's name is Carol."

I always wanted to
tell his family what we

had been through.

I always tell people
it isn't me, it's we,

and the heroes of
that day are the guys that

never made it out.

[♪ dramatic orchestral
music playing]

[siren]


experience and my way to

deal with the events was
to put it behind me.

But, without both of them,

I would have never made it out.

It's been 25 years.

Seeing them again,

will bring closure to an
obligation that I had that

I didn't fulfill back then.

And, you know I've always
wanted to say, thank you.

Working at the Twin Towers
was sort of a dream come true.

I worked in the North Tower
on the 67th floor,

and I was the Assistant
Director of Operations for

the Port Authority.

Living in Bayonne, New Jersey,

and right across the
Hudson River

from the Twin Towers,

we watched the towers grow
over time as a young child.

I would peer out the window,

trying to see what level
the towers had gotten to.

It was just remarkable.

They were always an icon
in the landscape of New York.

The World Trade Center
holds huge memories.

It reminds me of uh...

when I, I met my wife,

one of our first dates,
I wanted to impress her.

We went to the top
of the Trade Center,

to the observation deck.

It's this orange sunset,
it was just beautiful.

That's when I first
kissed my wife,

on the top of the
World Trade Center.

[Harris] Good morning,


it’s Tuesday, September 11th.

I’m Lee Harris,
here’s what happening.

It’s Primary day,

and the polls are
open in New York City,

voters are deciding
among about 250 candidates

for mayor and city council.

[John] I remember it
being a fantastic morning.

And I took the walk
from the ferry terminal to

the Trade Center,

and from there entered
the North Tower.

It was a beautiful,
almost fall day.

I got to work and went
to the elevator bank.

As I walked into the elevator,

there was another
person in front of me.

[John] This gentleman I
had never seen before,

walked into the elevator
and nodded as usual.

[George] As the doors
were closing, last minute,

a fella stuck his hand in
there and walked in with a

bucket and a squeegee.

[Jan] I was a window cleaner
at the World Trade Center.

When I came to America
from Poland it was 1980.

I able to buy ticket,

$10 exchange Polish money
that was my $10 when

I come to America.

I met my wife.

We have two children.

Before 9/11 life was good.

On that day, the
doors start closing,

and I put a stick between the
door and I get in, and I said,

"Sorry, I have to go work too."

I looked up to see the window
washer enter the elevator,

who I had seen but never
had spoken to before.

I think he was, he was going
up to the executive floors,

as I was.

The ride was routine until it
got to around the 65th floor.

[♪ suspenseful music playing]

[overlapping shouts]

[John] I remember being
jostled against the wall

of the elevator.

Shake, shake,
shake, shake, shake.

And then the elevator
started to fall.

Someone hit
the emergency button.

Pushing the button,
pushing the button.

It came to a, sort of,
screeching halt.

I could see the look of shock
on other people’s faces.

We’re looking at each other.

I thought, something’s wrong.

We didn’t know at
the time what had happened

to the building.

[reporter] An airplane has
hit the World Trade Center

in New York City.

There’s a lot of smoke coming
out of one of the Twin Towers.

There’s a fire
inside the building,

on one side, there’s
a large gaping hole.

[overlapping chatter]

[reporter] There is smoke
billowing out of both sides,

really of all four sides,
it would appear.

This is anywhere between
ten and 15 stories

down from the top.

Everything was
pretty calm initially,

but then uh, smoke started
to come into the elevator.

The sense of
urgency to get out I think,

began to gradually increase.

Being one of the
taller fellows in the elevator,

I was able to go up to
the top and try to see if

there’s a way to push,
push up the top,

but it was,
it wasn’t going anywhere.

There were no
openings above or below.

Just pure force of will, we
wedged our fingers and pulled

it back enough.

As we pried the door open,

we saw nothing but a wall
with the number 50 chalked

on the wall.

So, we had fallen
about 15 floors.

There was a thick,

concrete consistency
in the wall.

I can remember
people kicking at it,

and it was just no, no go.

At this point it was panic.

And I started to think
about my wife and my two

little girls at the time,
my youngest was not three.

What would their life be
like without me there?

At that point, it’s just like
"get out," you know.

There’s really no
thinking about it.

Gotta get through there somehow.

We’re looking at each other,

and I take a squeegee
from my bucket.

Amazingly, Jan, without a word,

took the blade from his
squeegee and began frantically

pecking at the wall.

Just scratch, scratch, scratch,

try to make it weaker.

It was sort of a
dangerous proposition,

because you didn't know
if the elevator was going

to stay where it was.

On that morning,
I'm on the subway.

I had no idea that there
had been a t*rror1st attack

or that the plane
had hit the North Tower.

I, I didn't know
anything at the time,

I'd been underground
the whole time.

I had a really important
morning meeting.

Normally, I would
just breeze in at 9:30.

But I remember I wanted to print
out the papers for the meeting,

just to look at them.

It was a happy time in my life.

I was engaged to the man I love.

I had just turned 30.

I felt like I was
on a trajectory,

and I truly believed it
was gonna be the best year

of my life.

[overlapping screaming]

[sirens]

The day of 9/11,

I was working two blocks away
from the World Trade Center.

Born and raised in Germany,

I used to be in the
French Foreign Legion in

the military service.

I just stopped at one point,
I just had it's enough.

I need to do something
completely change of my life.

I came to America in 1992,

stepping into the world
of Wall Street of finance.

When the first plane hit,

I walked over to
the Trade Center.

I wanted to see if I can help.

And you're looking up,
see this huge smoke.

That's not a small plane,
that is a big plane.

But then the more I look up...

you could see people
are hanging there.

People just
so desperate for air.

You're helpless
in that situation.

You couldn't do anything at all.

NEW YORK AIR TRAFFIC
CONTROL_

UNITED 175 DO YOU READ NEW YORK?

NEW YORK AIR TRAFFIC
CONTROL_

DO YOU SEE THAT
UNITED 175 ANYWHERE?

NEW YORK AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL_
AND DO ME A FAVOR YOU SEE THAT

TARGET THERE, THE 335 CLIMBING?

NEW YORK AIR TRAFFIC
CONTROL_ DON'T KNOW WHO HE IS,

WE MAY HAVE A HIJACK.

WE HAVE SOME PROBLEMS
OVER HERE RIGHT NOW

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SUPERVISOR_
OH YOU DO?

NEW YORK AIR TRAFFIC
CONTROL_ YES I CAN’T GET

A HOLD OF UNITED 175

AT ALL RIGHT NOW.

NEW YORK AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL_
AND I DON’T KNOW WHERE HE WENT TO.

Back off, back off, back off.

[overlapping chatter]

[scraping]

As we continued, we
all took turns trying to break

through a hole at least
large enough to be able to

get some fresh air.

I think we all felt a certain
responsibility for each other.

Everybody was just in a,

in a rush to do it, and get out.

[Debbie] I got out
of the subway.

When you walk up the stairs,

there's the underground mall
underneath the World Trade.

There's no windows,
it's very dark.

But then I noticed the
whole place was cleared out.

We were the only people there.

I was like, "This is weird."

There were really big
guys in WTC jackets,

and I remember them saying,

"We're gonna
bring you to safety."

And everyone's like,
"Alright, whatever.'"

It didn't even register that
there was a problem except for,

like, what's going on?

They um pushed open
the metal fire doors,

the sunlight poured in,
and it was blinding.

It took a few seconds, really,
to be able to even see anything.

You gotta get off here.

Keep going, alright?
Keep going.

[Debbie] And I remember
a crowd of people.

[overlapping chatter]

I remember a lot of the colors.

People's clothing.

[approaching mechanical roar]

And then I hear someone yell,
"Run for cover."

It's like my brain
took a picture of it.

Almost like a movie snapshot of
it just touching the building.

[thuds]

I believe that the whole time,
my brain was saying,

"Survive. Just survive."

[glass shattering]

[thuds]

Another plane just hit,
right, oh my god,

another plane has just
hit right into the middle

of it, expl*si*n.

-Oh my God.
-Oh my God.

[Stefan] When the
second plane hit,

this is like this huge fireball
like and all these pieces

uh, spreading in the
air and coming down.

You run, and you look.

I saw this big piece of
plane falling towards me.

It looked like the
blade from the engine.

Came straight down at us.

I thought it was gonna hit me
I'm gonna, I'm gonna be dead.

[heavy thud]

But it hit the woman
running next to me.

Debbie was lying in the street.

It should have been me, not her.

[reporter] There is black
smoke coming from both of

the towers uh it's a,
a horrific scene here.

[John] We felt the impact on
the South Tower while we were

in the elevator.

It shook the North Tower
enough so that I knew

it was significant.

[George] We were freaking out.

The smoke started
getting a little thicker and

thicker with time.

We were just focused
on getting a,

getting a hole through
this wall and getting out.

We were working on the
wall for about 15 minutes.

I remember thinking
we’re making progress,

slowly, slowly, slowly.

Scratching,
each time getting deeper.

But my hand was so tired.

And my squeegee
slipped from hand.

I said, "Oh my god."

The squeegee had
fell in the crack between the

wall and the elevator.

We all froze.

You know, in a stressful moment
like that you don’t think

this is gonna happen.

I think my heart sank
because we knew that we had

to find some other way.

I said, "Oh my god,
I still have a handle."

Then I grabbed the handle,
and start scratching.

And I said, "Don’t worry,
we can break it."

-We just stood there...
-astonished.

It was just remarkable.

This gentleman who I would
see almost on a daily basis.

His demeanor was probably
the calmest of all of us,

although I’m sure he was just
as frightened as we were.

[Jan] Little by little, I am
able to make a little hole.

And I said, "Thanks, God."

I was ecstatic.

We could actually feel
fresh air flowing into

the elevator shaft.

[George] I decided to try
facing the back of the elevator

and doing a kick backwards.

Kicking, kicking at it,
kicking at it.

Come on.

Then we heard tiles coming down.

-George break it.
-The light gets in.

I said, "Wow."

We, we couldn’t move fast
enough to get through the hole.

And it turns out that
we were in the men’s room,

on the 50th floor.

[John] Here we come just
fresh out of the rest room.

Jan was next to last,
and I was last in line.

And I remember we were
able to enter a stairwell.

And firefighters are making
their way up the stairs.

I remember asking
what had happened,

and one looked up at me
with real serious face and

said an air-airliner
had crashed into the

World Trade Center.

I was in shock.

The total impact of what
had occurred started to,

to really um...

occupy my thoughts.

One of the things always sticks
in my mind is the look of

concern on the firefighters'
faces that walked past us.

I'm sure that many of them that
passed us didn't make it out.

Their faces haunt
me quite a bit.

I would definitely
like to see Jan again.

It's been a long time.

And without, without Jan,

without the last second sticking
his hand in that elevator door,

um, we wouldn't be talking
right now, guaranteed.

And I feel very blessed
because I got to see my wife and

my two little daughters
again and I'm proud to

have been a positive
influence on their life.

It's just a, a moment,

three seconds could
have changed everything.

It'd be, it'd be great to
see him again, actually, yeah.

[John] When you go through
a near-death experience,

I was forever changed.

My life was, was
never ever the same.

There's almost a sense of
relief that it wasn't you,

but also tremendous...

sense of survivor's guilt,
and uh, you know,

I've always wanted
to say thank you.

George.

-Hey. Mr. Paczkowski.
-How are you, bud?

How are you?

-Alright.
-You look very much the same.

-You look great.
-Like, tw, uh, 25 years.

-Oh, yeah, tell me about it.
-That’s what it’ll do.

Oh, wow.

-Do you want a beer?
-Oh, I think so.

-I have to show you a picture.
-This is me.

-That’s you looking back?
-That’s Tower One.

That’s me in the white shirt.

That’s, oh, that’s when
our building came down.

-Yeah.
-That’s a crazy picture.

When people went north or east,

I went to West Street.

Uh-huh.

Got the other side
of the Winter Garden,

and the damn thing
started coming down.

-Oh my gosh.
-Yeah, I was probably, like,

three blocks up
Greenwich Street,

and me and these two
fellas were walking and talking,

and I think maybe...

Hello.

[George] ...you know,
five or six blocks away.

-Jan.
-How are ya?

-Oh my goodness.
-Oh my goodness.

-Jan.
-Long time no see.

Always thinking about you.

-Oh! Oh!
-You look well.

Thank you. You too.

-Hey Jan, nice to see you.
-How are you?

-How you doing man?
-Oh my goodness.

I want to tell you,
if it wasn't for you,

we wouldn't be here.

[Jan] You helped me,
you helped me

You was with me,
you was doing great

[John] It was you.

[John] You were the right man,
God placed you there.

Right time, right.

When 9/11 comes around I just,

I try not to think about it,

and I just treat it
like another day.

Yeah, I buried myself in work.

Didn’t think about it.

Yeah, you had to put it
out of your mind, I mean, I.

That’s the way I deal with it.

I mean, I lost 15 friends,

so I was going to funeral
after funeral after funeral.

I can’t hear
"Amazing Grace" anymore.

[George] If you think about
it, it’s been 25 years...

Yeah.

And the, the
whole younger generation,

I don’t think they
can connect to it.

If you’re under 30,

you don’t have any
memory of it happening,

so think if you think about it.

But we’re still
struggling, after that,

maybe one year I, I can’t sleep.

Shaking.

That was terrible.

[John] All this seems like just
yesterday in some ways right?

-Yeah.
-So fresh in, in our minds.

I’m glad you’re
part of my life now.

Yeah.

Jan is a remarkably
unassuming guy.

You’re my hero too.

An unlikely star.

[George] You know, you
might look at a guy washing

the window every day,
and just not see him.

Ah, Jan.

-It was nice to see you.
-Same here, buddy.

And Jan, Jan saved the day.

I say to them,
"Why you call me hero?"

They was there and
they helped me.

That's not only me a hero,

firefighters, police,
there's a lot of hero.

[reporter] It appears to be
something more than an accident,

both of the Twin Towers.

The World Trade Center in
New York's Lower Manhattan

have been struck by
plane within 20 minutes.

I’m across the street
from the Marriott man,

a second airplane,

a 727 just rammed
into the building.

[reporter] As you can imagine,

it is absolute chaos here,
they are, the police are

moving everyone North.

The objective here is to get
everyone as far away from the

World Trade Center as possible.

[reporter] Folks just
running every which way,

some screaming some crying,

others in total
shock as they watch.

[Stefan] After the
second plane hit,

I was underneath
the South Tower.

Debbie was lying on the street.

And afraid, very afraid.

It looked like the blade of
the airplane hit Debbie and

I knew I had to help her.

[Debbie] It’s the
fricken apocalypse,

and he decides to risk his life,

like it’s hard to put words on
that like it means everything.

Well, she was awake,
but she was in shock.

I said my name is Stefan,
I'm here to help.

And I was trying to protect
her from the stampede,

and there are pieces of debris
still coming down you know,

the airplane pieces.

At first, I didn't see that
she was seriously injured,

not too much blood,

that was quite good I thought.

But the blade cut
through her back.

She was basically naked,
her clothes were ripped off.

I noticed that uh...

when I tried to wrap my shirt,

and I had to go underneath,

that my hands uh
were inside her body,

her intestines.

That's what I felt
just everything on the

back was missing.

Now, how do you fix that?

She's still alive.
She still is alive.

I couldn't believe
that uh, that injury.

[reporter] As I look out,
I see smoke pouring out.

A lot of people crying,
people just running.

The most important
was her safety.

Don’t fall asleep,
the importance is keep

the eyes open.

I’m not gonna let you go.

Stay alive.

I was just desperate
for an ambulance,

and I was screaming
that we need some help.

We were running out of time.

[sirens]

I was driving the ambulance,

just actually two blocks
from the World Trade Center.

I have an ambulance
full of patients,

a guy with third degree burns.

What we were supposed to
do was take this guy to the

hospital and the
remaining people in the

ambulance to the hospital
and get them out of,

get them to safety.

There was a lot of
people in the street.

There was, everybody was
pretty much running away.

We drove 60 feet,
and I saw her and,

and I looked at her,
and she was just like in a daze.

She was the only one on the
ground that wasn't running.

And she was being
held up by some guy,

which is was pretty heroic.

And I said that's
somebody's daughter,

uh maybe she has a kid,

maybe she's somebody's mother.

I said I gotta stop.

Out of nowhere,
the ambulance came.

Uh, it was like incredible,
I couldn't believe it.

I was screaming
at them, yelling,

"You've gotta,
gotta come over here.

We need you."

[overlapping chatter]

We all worked together
to put her on a stretcher.

Gotta be so careful that
you’re not destroy something,

break something, or
rip something apart.

Got her into the ambulance,
and that was it.

You can't forget that,
you don't forget that.

[sirens]

[Debbie] My experience
after 9/11 was a

long, difficult road.

It's fight for survival.

Fighting to have a
real life and thriving.

Now I'm married
with two daughters.

My hopes, my dreams,

my possibilities is
because of Stefan.

[Stefan] I thought
about her a lot, you know.

All these years,

it's just like uh,
what happened to her?

You know...
Her injuries.

I felt always it should have
been me not her, you know.

[Debbie] I'm really excited
to be with him in person.

I want him to see me walk.

I worked real hard on it.

It makes me think
about this movie called

Saving Private Ryan.

At the end of the movie,

"Private Ryan" is at the wall,

and he loses it, and
he looks to his family.

[cries]

And he says,

"Have I lived well
enough to deserve this life?"

That's something
I keep with me every day.

And my hope is
that all my efforts...

will prove to just be
good enough to deserve to,

him saving my life.

[♪ dramatic music playing]

Oh my goodness.

-Hi.
-Ah, Debbie.

[overlapping chatter]

You're as beautiful as then.

Unbelievable.

I know.

I'm just so thankful
and grateful,

and I just think you're
such a special person.

-Thank you.
-I fought, I fought really hard.

-You did so well.
-I’m so proud of you.

What does Stefan mean to me?

Well, I hold him on a pedestal.
He’s perfect.

[laughs]

He can do no wrong.

I just want you
to be proud of me.

I am super proud.

I'm thinking how
speechless I am.

Thank you.

Just seeing you and all that
after the last time I saw you.

You know all that what you
have achieved in these years,

it’s been 25, really 25 years.

Yeah. I’m glad you’re here,
I’m glad you’re whole.

Yeah.

I’m glad you’re smiling,
you know, and I’m very lucky,

proud to know you,

and that I was there
in the right moment.

I was there.

And I'm glad it
was me and not you.

-No, I, no.
-No, that’s what it is.

It just is.
We can't change it.

-We can't change it.
-No, but...

But it is, that's
just what it is.

[Stefan] She’s an
unbelievably strong person.

That she survived is a miracle.

I lost a lot of
friends in the attack.

But that she survived
gave me a, you know,

a good positive attitude that
even though I was helpless,

I helped someone.

And that made me feel good.

I want Stefan to see me ride.

It’s what I’m most proud of.

[Stefan] She's on it.
Look at that. Wow.

[laughs]

He makes me want to be better,

always, every moment,
all the time.

And like he was my savior,
hands down.

Yeah, he was my savior.

[♪ reflective music playing]

[Bush] Two airplanes
have crashed into the

World Trade Center

in an apparent t*rror1st
attack on our country.

[radio] The FBI is
investigating reports that a

plane has crashed into
the Pentagon this morning.

I was a Navy SEAL.

I’m thinking I wanna try to
help as many people as I can,

and I told them, jump.

Craig saved my life but
I never saw him or heard

of him again.

[reporter] No one clearly
knows what to expect next.

Oh my God, the building fell.

I remember getting
lifted at one point and

then coming crashing down.

That’s when I saw Kevin,
the firefighter.

He was hurt seriously.

Now you’re a paramedic again.

I need to know
what happened to me,

and Al Kim can fill the gaps.

Oh!

[♪ somber music playing]