For younger Americans, 9/11 remembrance turns to education

A new education center at the Pentagon

The Pentagon 9/11 Memorial is preparing to break ground on a visitor education center as the United States marks 25 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Pentagon is the only one of the three attack sites without a dedicated museum or education center.

Joseph Kornhoff, executive director of the Pentagon Memorial Fund, told Fox News that nearly one-third of the country was either not alive on Sept. 11 or cannot remember it. The center is intended to help those visitors understand the events and their seriousness without relying on firsthand memory.

Al-Qaeda hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Another hijacked plane crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people were killed across the three sites.

Moving from memory to history

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York is addressing the same generational change. Its president and CEO, Beth Hillman, said 100 million Americans were not born by Sept. 11, 2001, or were too young to remember it.

Noah Rauch, the museum’s senior vice president for education and public programs, said he has seen a growing divide between people who personally recall the attacks and those who know them only as history.

That shift changes the role of 9/11 institutions. For older visitors, memorials can preserve experiences they lived through. For younger visitors, the Pentagon center is designed to establish that connection through education about the attacks, their victims and their continuing significance.