NEW YORK — In one room above the bedrock of the former World Trade Center, nearly 3,000 portraits will glow on a brightly lit wall. Walk into another and hear spouses, children and siblings describe their lost loved ones while words flash on a screen saying who they are and where they were on Sept. 11, 2001.
The minimovies to play continuously at the Sept. 11 museum — with each name read aloud and family pictures projected along with the hijacked jetliner or tower floor each victim was on — is one of the most carefully planned exhibitions for the museum commemorating the nation’s worst terrorist attack.
The tributes must speak to grieving family members who may not have their loved ones’ remains, as well as to strangers. And they have to address a sensitive, years-old controversy over how to list each victim’s name on the above- ground part of the memorial.
“It’s the core purpose of why we’re here — that is to pay respect to the dead and to remind people that the terrorists may be thinking of high-value targets . . . and the anonymity of victims,” museum curator Jan Ramirez said this week. “There’s nothing anonymous about the individuals who were killed in this event.”
The exhibit is among the most labor-intensive for the museum, set to open by September 2012.
