Deep Read: 25 Jahre 9/11 – Warum Europa und Amerika nicht voneinander loskommen

Twenty-five years ago, the events of September 11, 2001, continue to evoke profound memories that many people keep buried within themselves. The New York Times recently reported on the trauma experienced by Thuc Doan Nguyen-Brophy, a college student, who had repressed these memories for nearly a quarter-century. Nguyen-Brophy captured a video of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center collapsing on the morning of September 11, 2001, from her apartment in Lower Manhattan.

It wasn't until last year that she retrieved the cassette tape from her closet and allowed the images of the 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero to be seen. She feared seeing images of people jumping from the burning buildings, as she wrote in the New York Times. I share this feeling. "Where were you on September 11?" is likely one of the most frequently asked questions over the past 25 years.

I usually respond briefly: "I stood right in front of the burning towers" and then try to steer the conversation towards a more general, political discussion. This is a coping mechanism that many who were actually present share: we silence ourselves in the face of the images from that time, which remain deeply buried in our minds or stored on tapes. Additionally, the language often fails when confronted with the inexpressible.