The emotions of fear, sadness, surprise, anger and disgust can overwhelm during a traumatic event.
Twenty-one years ago, on Sept. 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four airliners and flew two planes into the World Trade Center towers and a third plane into the Pentagon. Heroic passengers on the fourth plane fought the hijackers, and the plane crashed in an empty field in Pennsylvania.
Nearly 3,000 people died, and more than 25,000 were injured by four airplanes turned into weapons. Television stations broadcast the events live into the homes of millions of people that September morning, stirring emotions to a boil and devastating many.
For renowned artist A. Thomas Schomberg, those emotions need to be expressed. He worked for almost two decades doing just that in creating “9/11 Sculptures: Vignettes of Emotion.” The bronze sculptures, which are painted white, journey through the emotions of what the victims must have felt.
The display featuring the artworks opened at the Holocaust Museum LA in Pan Pacific Park in Los Angeles starting Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022.
It was one of myriad events Sunday as communities across Los Angeles County commemorated 9/11 on Sunday.
Schomberg’s accomplishments as a sculptor include the Rocky Statue in Philadelphia. In the early 1980s, actor Sylvester Stallone commissioned Schomberg to create a bronze statue of his film character, Rocky Balboa, which he later gifted to the city of Philadelphia. Schomberg’s other work can be found in the collections of museums and collectors worldwide.
The 9/11 attacks gave him an overwhelming sense of sorrow. “I don’t care where you were at the time of the attack,” he said. “At least as an American, you were affected.”
Soon after the attacks, he and his wife went to New York to visit a family member. At Union Station he saw thousands of fliers posted on walls with photos of the victims and vast numbers of missing people whose bodies were never found, incinerated as the two tallest World Trade Center towers collapsed and burned to the ground.
It was then he realized the scope of the lost lives.
He returned to his studio and began putting his thoughts in writing before starting the modeling on the first piece, “Door of Sorrow.” Using the human form to convey emotion, each painted white casting is attached to a black column, creating a stark contrast.
“Almost all the figures are nude because the people were all so vulnerable,” he says. “The clerical workers are now with the CEOs — there is no social, economic distinction.” Schomberg says of the equality of people during their last moments, “They are all in the same place now.”
The detail in the figures, faces, hands, and feet express emotions he wanted to convey. “I wanted to make a difference. In my case, I felt I had a particular skill set I wanted to express.”
Jordanna Gessler, vice president of Education and Exhibits at the Holocaust Museum LA, sees the importance of his exhibit at a museum dedicated to the Holocaust.
“Whether it’s Holocaust history or 9/11 history,” she said, “understanding that we need to be having conversations that foster kindness, that foster empathetic responses, that foster mutual respect — learning from each other’s differences to strengthen a more vibrant community and not forget.”
Schomberg feels the importance of recognizing each victims. “I really wanted to emphasize the individual, and I want to emphasize what these poor souls had to go through during that hour-plus of tragedy. That is why the 911 exhibit exists for me. I am a sculptor, so I expressed it three dimensionally,” he said.
Schomberg hopes his work helps people remember the events of that day, and he hopes that people will reflect on the individuals and what they suffered as they lost their lives through an act of terror.
Gessler notes that as time passes, eyewitnesses to the Holocaust and 9/11 will all be gone, so reminders become more important.
“It has been 21 years since 9/11, an entire generation has been born since then, and they don’t have 9/11 in their memory,” she says. “As we move further away from the Holocaust, with the last Holocaust survivors dying, there will be a generation that will not be able to speak to a Holocaust survivor.
Gessler asked, “So how do we continue educating and learning about history? As generations have not witnessed them themselves — have not been the eyewitness — I think with exhibitions and the museum, this is a transitional moment for conversation with people that aren’t eyewitnesses to history anymore.”
For more information on the exhibit, please visit https://www.holocaustmuseumla.org/.
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Myriad other events were staged around the Los Angeles County area to mark the 9/1 anniversary on Sunday.
Hermosa Beach residents and officials placed flowers — and a wreath — at the city’s 9/11 Memorial on Sunday to commemorate the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people 21 years ago.
The city hosted its annual wreath-laying ceremony on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 11, at its memorial in Hermosa’s 1.7-mile portion of the Greenbelt, a strip of open space that stretches four miles in total from Manhattan Beach to Redondo Beach.
Hermosa provided flowers for those who attended the ceremony. Residents placed the flowers at the memorial to pay their respects to the victims of 9/11.
Hermosa was the only South Bay beach city to host a 9/11 ceremony this year — but it’s not the only one with a dedicated memorial.
Both Redondo and Manhattan, in fact, have sections of the World Trade Center that are on display.
A 300-pound section of an inner beam from one of the towers, a gift from the New York Fire Department, is on display at Redondo Beach City Hall. In Manhattan Beach, two steel beams are at Fire Station No. 1, 400 15th St.; those beams are upright on a concrete platform, which has the inscription, “We shall never forget.”
Early Sunday, Los Angeles city and county leaders gathered for a ceremony at the Los Angeles Fire Department’s Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center.
Mayor Eric Garcetti and Fire Chief Kristin Crowley rang 10 bells during a ceremony that also included bagpipers and a helicopter flyover.
Chief Michel Moore of the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, acting Los Angeles County Fire Department Chief Anthony Marrone and members of the LAFD who were deployed to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 also attended.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Federal Operations staged a conducted a moment of silence at Los Angeles International Airport.
It has been 21 years since 9/11, a day forever engraved in our history. @CBP Los Angeles #OFO conducted a moment of silence at the Los Angeles International Airport for reflection in honor of the men and women who lost their lives. #WeWillRemember #WeAreDHS. pic.twitter.com/t4hTson3K6
— Carlos C. Martel (@DFOLosAngeles) September 11, 2022
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The city of Long Beach observed a moment of silence at 9:11 a.m.
In Beverly Hills, the fire department headquarters hosted an informal ceremony at 6:45 a.m. A remembrance was scheduled at the Beverly Hills Memorial Garden in the evening.
The Orange County Fire Authority will hold its annual remembrance ceremony at 8:30 a.m. Sunday at the agency’s headquarters at 1 Fire Authority Road in Irvine. District Attorney Todd Spitzer will also participate in the ceremony, which features honor guard members leading a bell-ringing ceremony.
In addition, Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes and Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy spoke at the Richard Nixon Library and Museum in Yorba Linda in a remembrance set to begin at 11 a.m.
Other events included a Patriot Day Paddle around Newport Harbor in Newport Beach.
On Monday, Pepperdine University will host an “Honoring the Heroes of 9/11” event, featuring Chancellor Sara Jackson and President Jim Gash. The university also has an annual display of nearly 3,000 flags in honor of the victims of the attack. The flags will fly on campus through Sept. 23.
City News Service and SCNG staffers Brian Whitehead and Robert Morales contributed to this report.
Source: Orange County Register
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