Whether they were based in New York or in Luxembourg, politicians, diplomats, business and sports personalities have not forgotten what they were doing on 11 September 2001. (Photo: Studio Maison Moderne)

Whether they were based in New York or in Luxembourg, politicians, diplomats, business and sports personalities have not forgotten what they were doing on 11 September 2001. (Photo: Studio Maison Moderne)

Politicians, diplomats and Luxembourg personalities tell Paperjam their story of 11 September 2001, a day that changed the face of the world.

Few people do not remember what they were doing when they learned of the terrorist attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and other targets in the United States on 11 September 2001, especially if they were on the front line. We take a look at a day when everything changed.

The course of history would change. This sentence turned out to be true.
Jean-Claude Juncker (CSV)

Jean-Claude Juncker (CSV)Former Prime Minister

"It was a full day, with a bit of anxiety and we didn't know where we were going to go.” Jean-Claude Juncker remembers very well the afternoon when his chief usher entered his office without knocking to alert him to the events in New York. "When I saw the second plane hit the World Trade Center tower, it became clear that it was not an accident, but a terrorist attack," he recalls. The prime minister then met with Lydie Polfer and Luc Frieden to follow the news live on television while preparing a press conference.

"We wanted to draw the attention of the population to the fact that probably the course of history would change. That sentence turned out to be correct.” The head of government also talked to his European counterparts such as Jacques Chirac, Tony Blair and Guy Verhofstadt. "We took care to protect sensitive places such as airports, railway stations, barracks and military camps as well as the Nato installations in Capellen,” adds the former president of the European Commission.

Since 11 September 2001, international politics has changed.
Lydie Polfer (DP)

Lydie Polfer (DP)Former Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister

Lydie Polfer was preparing to celebrate her daughter's birthday on 11 September, 2001. "I was wrapping a present when an employee came into my office and told me that something had happened in New York," recalls the then foreign minister. When she learned that a second plane had crashed into one of the Twin Towers, she went to prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker's office to follow the events live on television.

The cabinet held an emergency meeting and set up a telephone hotline to collect reports from relatives of Luxembourg nationals who might be among the victims. But direct communications to New York were impossible on 11 September and, what is more, the Luxembourg permanent representative to the UN was, exceptionally, not in the Big Apple that day, but in the Grand Duchy. "It was an unimaginable extreme shock that changed the world. Since 11 September 2001, international politics have changed,” explains the current mayor of Luxembourg.

We didn't know yet what would happen next.
Luc Frieden (CSV)

Luc Frieden (CSV)Former Minister of JusticeJuncker Government

Luc Frieden recalls: "I was at the ministry at the time of the attacks. I immediately went to the office of prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker. Together with foreign minister Lydie Polfer, who joined us, we followed developments.” At that time, "we did not yet know what would happen next. We discussed the measures to be taken if such attacks were to happen in Europe. The current president of the Chamber of Commerce also made a few phone calls to counterparts abroad: "Many security measures were taken in Luxembourg and in Europe in the following hours and days". He cites the protection of embassies and "other sensitive places".

It was science fiction that unfortunately became reality.
Jean Asselborn (LSAP)

Jean Asselborn (LSAP)Former MP and LSAP President

The current minister for foreign affairs, , remembers the September 11 attacks in New York. "There are things that stick in the mind. For me, there are three: the assassination of Kennedy, which I heard on the radio. The first steps of man on the moon and September 11, 2001. I had just returned from parliament where I was an MP. I opened the garage and my sister and her husband asked me if I had seen what was happening in New York. I said no and went to the television. I remember seeing the second plane crash into the second tower. I also remember the fear on the face of Udo Van Kampen, the head of ZDF in New York. It was science fiction that unfortunately was a reality.”

Minister for immigration and foreign affairs since 2004, Jean Asselborn is regularly confronted with the repercussions of 11 September, 2001 on the geopolitical chessboard. "I don't know if history repeats itself, but the latest attack in Kabul, which killed more than a hundred people, is almost 20 years after the massacre in New York, but in any case history is stuttering. Violence begets violence and it should never be an appropriate response. I believe that we can act preventively and I continue to believe in a dialogue between religions, but also within a religion itself. More generally, we must focus on prevention without falling into a state where everything is under surveillance," the minister concludes.

At first we thought it was a 'show'.

Gerald LoftusFormer US Ambassador to Luxembourg (2001-2002)

Reality exceeded fiction on 11 September 2001 at the US embassy in Luxembourg. That day had been chosen for a long-planned emergency planning exercise. “The idea was to test embassy staff, and a former diplomat who did this for a living had constructed a scenario to test our ability to deal with a crisis," recalls now retired US Ambassador Gerald Loftus on his blog. When a staff member told the team that an incident had occurred in New York, "our first thought was that the script writer had 'staged' it, something to distract us from the fictional crisis of our exercise.”

But when the second plane hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the gravity of the situation was beyond comprehension. A call from the minister of the interior and armed Luxembourg police officers arrived to reinforce the guards posted around the embassy. "For several hours on that terrible day, the American embassies abroad were practically left to their own devices," recalls the Brussels-based diplomat. He asked his staff to go home and urgent messages poured in. But solidarity also expressed itself strongly with the spontaneous laying of flowers and candles in front of the building on Boulevard Servais, followed a few days later by a mass at the Notre-Dame de Luxembourg Cathedral and finally a tribute at the American military cemetery.

I saw the smoke rising in the distance, on the other side of the Potomac.

Arlette ConzemiusFormer Ambassador of Luxembourg in Washington (1998-2005)

It was a phone call from Luxembourg that alerted ambassador Arlette Conzemius to the events in New York. "There was panic in Washington, as it was suspected that another plane was on its way and that its target could be the White House or Congress," she recalls. Eventually, the plane in question crashed in Pennsylvania. But in the US capital, the Pentagon was hit. "I saw the smoke rising in the distance, on the other side of the Potomac.”

Washington emptied, a huge traffic jam formed: "At about 3 pm, the city was as if emptied of its inhabitants and there was a very unusual silence. Airspace was closed and all you could hear was the passing of F16 jets.” But the diplomat decided to stay at her desk. "We had to make sure that there were no Luxembourg victims, but telephone communications were difficult.”

Those horrific images still haunt me, 20 years later.
Yuriko Backes

Yuriko BackesFormer Foreign Ministry attaché

Yuriko Backes lived and worked in New York. So when a friend living in the Big Apple sent her an email entitled "Look at the news!" on 11 September 2001, the current marshal of the court turned on her screens and followed the attacks with a few colleagues and defence minister Charles Goerens: "It was shock and dismay. I thought of my friends, some of whom lived near the World Trade Center.”

Hard to watch images filled the screens, like people jumping from the towers. "Those horrible images still haunt me, 20 years later," says Backes. In the weeks and months that followed, the spotlight on radical Islam, the outbreak of war in Afghanistan and the issue of Guantanamo detainees took centre stage. "For me, September 11 had a considerable impact on my work as a diplomat," Backes says today.

A completely new approach to risk management had to be developed.
Michel Wurth

Michel WurthFormer CFO and member of the Executive BoardArbed Group

It was from his office on Avenue de la Liberté that Michel Wurth learned of the terrorist attacks in New York. "At the end of the afternoon and for dinner at the Arbed Casino, I had an appointment with our Korean partner to discuss the future of our wire drawing joint venture . Needless to say, we mainly talked about American events and very little about our joint projects," he recalls.

"Even though none of the victims was a close relation, I knew the names of some of the people who perished in the World Trade Center attacks because I had worked with them in their capacity as employees of firms based there," explains the current chairman of ArcelorMittal Luxembourg. After the shock of the events also came "the realisation that the unthinkable could happen and that a completely new approach to risk management was needed.” A new era had begun.

Today, we still wonder how this is possible.
Carlo Thelen

Carlo ThelenFormer chief economist Chamber of Commerce

"I remember it like it was yesterday," says . On 11 September 2001, the Chamber of Commerce was located at 31 Boulevard Konrad Adenauer, pending the completion of the current headquarters in rue Alcide de Gasperi. In the absence of television, the current director of the Chamber of Commerce followed events on the internet, where video streaming was in its infancy. "The line was bad and there were many interruptions," he recalls. He was astonished and beyond comprehension. "Today, with hindsight, we still wonder how it is possible that these planes could have been hijacked and that the secret services did not see this coming," Thelen says.

I didn't sleep that night.
Guy Hoffmann

Guy HoffmannCurrent president ABBL

On 11 September 2001, Guy Hoffmann was working at the BGL. He heard the news in the corridors from his colleagues. "It seemed so unrealistic that I immediately went to the lobby of the company restaurant, where there was a large screen showing CNN news continuously. “The images were shocking, even mind-boggling, and I, like everyone else, quickly realised that the sequence of events was not a series of unfortunate accidents, but brutal acts of terrorism of unprecedented proportions. I felt acute anxiety and concern about the possible geopolitical and military consequences of this act,” Hoffmann says now.

“I did not sleep that night and early in the morning a small circle of colleagues met at the bank to assess the first possible consequences for our clients, our systems and the bank in general. Personally, and after a few days of reflection, I realised that in the future the level of controls, observations and the presence of public forces could become permanent in our social life.”

I was stunned by the human drama without understanding the causes and I completely forgot my personal problems.
François Biltgen

François BiltgenFormer Minister of Labour and Employment, Cults and Culture (1999 - 2009)

François Biltgen was going through personal travails in 2001: "I had just been operated on for cancer and was about to announce that I was undergoing treatment that would force me to take a break...” Despite his health concerns, the current judge at the Court of Justice of the European Union was at his desk trying to get as much work done as possible when the first crash occurred. Suddenly, a colleague walked in.

"He told me that I absolutely had to watch television because something horrible had just happened: a plane had been hijacked and hit one of the twin towers in New York." That's when the second impact happened. "I saw it live. I spent the whole afternoon watching the breaking news. I was stunned by the human tragedy without understanding the causes and I completely forgot about my personal problems. It was something unheard of and, what's more, at that time we didn't know what was behind it..."

I had the impression that it was wrong... That it was science fiction.
Alex Bodry

Alex BodryFormer LSAP MP (1999-2020)

"I was at the commune when the news came out," explains Alex Bodry, who now sits on the council of state. "We got the news and tried to turn on the television we had. We spent our day watching what was happening in New York and I did the same thing when I got home. I couldn't believe it. I felt like it was fake, like it was science fiction."

We wondered if this was the start of a war.
François Bausch

François BauschFormer MP and current Deputy Prime Minister

François Bausch (Déi Gréng) was an MP 20 years ago. On the day of the attacks, he was on a parliamentary mission in Estonia with a fellow MP and the secretary general. "We were sitting in a conference in Tallinn. All of a sudden, people started to leave the room one after the other.” With the room almost empty, the conference chairman decided to interrupt. "He said something bad had just happened in New York. We went out of the room in turn. Outside, all the televisions were on. One of the twin towers was already burning, and then I saw the second plane fly into the second tower."

The atmosphere at the conference at that moment still seems to haunt the deputy prime minister to this day: "It was shocking. Our blood ran cold. Everyone was paralysed. The atmosphere was heavy. We wondered what it was... What was going to happen... If it was the beginning of a war... It was a moment that marked my life forever."

I walked from Belair to avenue de la Liberté with my radio to my ear.
Philippe Poirier

Philippe PoirierProfessor of Political ScienceUniversity of Luxembourg

Philippe Poirier remembers his September 11, 2001 experience in great detail. It was his wife, who he had just married, who gave him the news. "She was working for an American bank and had received a message from her company telling employees to turn on the television because a major event was taking place in New York. She then called me to tell me."

"But I didn't have a TV in my office... I just had a radio. I turned it on and listened to Europe 1 for a few minutes before switching to an American station. I stayed there for one or two hours listening to nothing else.” When it was time to go home, there was no question of turning off the radio. "At the time, I worked in Belair and lived on avenue de la Liberté. I walked all the way home with the radio glued to my ear. It was a battery-operated radio, I kept it as a souvenir."

His wife, like all the employees of the bank she worked for, had been sent home. "We met up there and watched France 2 and then BBC World live for hours and hours. At the same time, I received emails from friends--young researchers like me, but in New York--with whom I studied at university in Canada, who were telling their relatives that they were safe. I received about ten of them."

It was when the same thing happened to the second tower that the news started to become alarming...
Jacques Chahine

Jacques ChahinePresident and founderJAJ Investment Group

When the attack took place, Jacques Chahine was working from his offices in London. "I wasn't watching TV, wasn't listening to the radio. I heard the news via a news report that a plane had hit a tower in the World Trade Center," he says. "At first I thought it was a horrible accident. We were in the dark. It was when the same thing happened to the second tower that the news started to become alarming... The same images of people jumping from the towers and running around started to run on a loop. There was no clarity in the information given by the media. It was very disturbing.”

It was only later that he realised, along with the rest of the world, that it was a terrorist attack. "I still remember the jubilation of Al-Qaeda in their claim shortly afterwards... It was a victory announcement for them. For me, it was a horrible feeling of frustration."

What would have happened if I hadn't come home right away?
Gilles Muller

Gilles MullerFormer tennis player, winner of the US Open in New York on 9 September 2001

On 9 September 2001, 18-year-old Gilles Muller achieved one of the great moments in the history of Luxembourg sport by winning the junior version of the US Open in New York. "Two or three days earlier, taking advantage of a day without a match and the presence of two friends who had come to see me, we had gone to see the World Trade Center towers," recalls the former professional tennis player, who is now captain of the Luxembourg Davis Cup team.

The same towers that he saw fall on television a few days later. "We left NY the night I won and landed in Luxembourg on the 10th. The jet lag plus the little party that had been organised in my honour had left me quite tired. I had slept quite a bit on 11 September... But a friend woke me up and told me to turn on the TV. I was shocked, wondering what would have happened if I hadn't come back right after my victory, but also what was happening to all the people I had met during the tournament..."

Our flat was 200m from the towers...
Michel Welter

Michel WelterFormer student in New YorkCurrent partner-manager of the Atelier room

In September 2001, Michel Welter was in New York to begin a Master's degree in Music Business at New York University (NYU). "We arrived with a friend at the beginning of the month to settle in. Our flat was at 99 John Street in the Financial District. It was 200m from the World Trade Center..." recalls the current partner-manager of the Atelier. "I had to leave for Luxembourg on 10 September, because I had to defend my dissertation in order to complete the studies I had previously carried out in Brussels.”

His mother alerted him to the events on 11 September 2001. "The helicopter images showed the two towers... but also the flat where I was staying and where I could have been...", he explains. A flat that he was unable to occupy or even see until the end of October, as it was in the area closed off and guarded by the American military.

And while I was talking to my father, another explosion occurred and my whole building started to shake.
Patrick Wilwert

Patrick WilwertFormer studentCurrent managing partner of the W-Conseil Group

On 11 September 2001, Patrick Wilwert was a student in New York. He was a little over-tired the night before and went to bed very late. But in the university flat he occupied five blocks from the World Trade Towers, he was "awakened by a deafening noise. A big explosion that was actually the plane that hit the first tower," he recalls. He turned on his television, as CNN was broadcasting live from the scene, before climbing onto the roof of his building. “We had a direct view of the top of the towers. I even took a few photos that I still have today..."

Then, the Luxembourg student returned to his studio, has breakfast and called his parents. "And while I was talking to my father, another explosion occured and my whole building started to shake. The tone on television suddenly changed. They were no longer talking about an accident, but about an attack. Then I was overcome with fear. You feel powerless..."

The security staff of the New York University where he was studying gathered everyone in the hall and announced that they were evacuating the premises. "And while we were talking, one of the two towers collapsed. In less than a second, everything went black and dust was everywhere..." Evacuated, he then spent a week sleeping on a cot in his university gym.