Family members of the victims of 9/11 have lost so much — and now, they say, officials are trying to take away the remains of their loved ones, too.
A dozen men and women spoke out yesterday against plans to entomb the unidentified remains of 1,123 victims of the World Trade Center attack inside a museum, seven stories below ground-level.
“Bloomberg doesn’t own the rights to our loved ones’ remains,” said Long Island resident Rosemary Cain. Her son George, a firefighter, died in 9/11.
“For months we waited and prayed for him to be recovered,” said Cain. “I will not allow the city of New York to put him back in that hellhole.”
Cain said she and others were promised a “tomb-like” above-ground structure — open to the public, but with an adjacent private area for families to grieve.
Yet in the current proposed plan for the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, visitors would pay to visit the repository holding the remains. Family members would still have a private room for paying their respects, but it would only fit eight or ten people at a time.
Families say they were never part of the discussion. “We will never agree to dishonoring our son’s remains by placing them in the basement of a museum,” said Sally Regenhard, who lost her son Christian. “The 9/11 families were never consulted.”
Follow Emily Anne Epstein on Twitter at @EmilyatMetro.
