Hundreds of First-Hand 9/11 Responder Accounts Now Available Online

This screenshot of the Library of Congress webpage to the collection shows the links to featured content, easily accessible in five themed parts.
Credit: Library of Congress

A new Library of Congress collection features the full Stony Brook WTC Health and Wellness Program oral history project that highlights on video the harrowing, moving, and diverse experiences of responders and their families

STONY BROOK, NY, September 4, 2026 - Nearly 500 oral histories of 9/11 responders - developed and produced by professionals at the Stony Brook World Trade Center Health and Wellness Program over a period of years after the events of 9/11 - are now an online collection on the Library of Congress website.

Launched to mark the 25^th anniversary of the events of 9/11, the first-hand accounts are housed in the American Folklife Center. The collection includes 484 full-length video interviews conducted between April 2010 and September 2024, along with their corresponding transcripts, which document what responders witnessed, why they responded, what they endured, and how the experience affected their health, families and lives in the years that followed.

The collection includes interviews with responders, family members, advocates, and medical personnel. Additionally, the collection finding aid contains a full inventory of the collection.

Taken together, the interviews preserve not only the memories of a historic event, but the testimony of witnesses whose lives became part of it continuing history. Making them available through the Library of Congress ensures that their testimony becomes part of the nation's permanent memory.

The interviews are part of a project begun by Benjamin Luft, MD, Director of the Stony Brook World Trade Center Health and Wellness Program, which currently monitors and treats more than 16,000 9/11 responders for their various medical conditions.

Benjamin Luft, MD, Director of the Stony Brook WTC Health and Wellness Program, who started the 9/11 responder oral history project with some of his first patients.
Credit: Jeanne Neville, Stony Brook Medicine

"I began these interviews because I realized that my patients were not simply people who had become ill after 9/11; they were witnesses to history," says Dr. Luft. "They had seen extraordinary courage, loss, compassion and sacrifice, and they were living with the consequences years later. We wanted to preserve their accounts in their own voices, before time inevitably changed what the nation remembered. Now, 25 years later, these interviews allow them to speak directly to future generations."

Dr. Luft adds that with the complete "Remembering 9/11 Oral History Project" newly placed online for the first time by the Library of Congress, the resource is not only available for anyone to view but also offers an important opportunity for medical professionals to reflect on the responsibilities of medicine in the aftermath of disaster and on the value of listening to and learning from those lived through this particular tragedy.

Researchers and the public can search the detailed online archive by responder names, hometowns, and occupations. The site also features five thematic compilations of excerpts from multiple interviews, exploring "the day America was attacked," "rescue, recovery and cleanup," "development of diseases and loss," "resiliency" and "family member perspectives," as well as 42 additional compilations drawn from the full-length videos.

"It is our responsibility and privilege to safeguard this history to help educate people about the lives of 9/11 responders," says Nicole Saylor, Director of the American Folklife Center. "Making these in-depth interviews available worldwide is a major milestone not only in our collection stewardship efforts but also in ensuring that the stories, lives, and collective memory of 9/11 responders remain accessible around the world."

Among the hundreds of interviewees in the collection:

Carol Paukner, NYPD transit officer - Paukner helped evacuate people from the World Trade Center and survived the collapse of the South Tower, suffering injuries that eventually forced her retirement. She later received the NYPD Medal of Valor for her actions.

Tyree Bacon, senior court officer and EMT: Bacon rescued a severely burned woman from the South Tower and was trapped with her below street level when the building collapsed. He dragged her through the rubble until they were rescued; three colleagues who entered the complex with him died.

Ronald King, construction supervisor: An immigrant from Guyana, King volunteered at Ground Zero, securing donated equipment and working in the bucket brigade for months. He reflects on the experience with gratitude to the United States and a belief in the strength and compassion of its people.

Kayla Coughlin, daughter of an NYPD officer: Six years old when her father was killed on 9/11, Coughlin recounts growing up with that loss, finding healing among other children of victims and eventually pursuing a career in storytelling and documentary production.

Robert Weisberg, volunteer firefighter: Weisberg describes nine months of work at Ground Zero and his years-long struggle with PTSD afterward. He later turned toward recovery and advocacy, hiking more than 1,850 miles of the Appalachian Trail while raising awareness of mental-health challenges among first responders and veterans.

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About the Stony Brook World Trade Center Health and Wellness Program

The Stony Brook World Trade Center Health and Wellness Program is a Clinical Center of Excellence of the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program administered by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The Program offers comprehensive, integrative healthcare of 9/11-related conditions for WTC disaster responders. Integral to the mission and scope of its member-centered care is an enduring support community, advocacy for our 9/11 responders and cutting-edge research.

Currently, more than 16,000 responders are monitored for their physical and mental health conditions. The evolution of the program emphasizes medicine and society's lasting connection to the WTC disaster and the importance we place on promoting health, even in the face of chronic illness.

About the Library of Congress

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