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I undertook my first translation when I was living in Vienna and was approached by a young Austrian playwright who wanted an English version of his play about violence in America. I learned Italian while in public school in Italy in the late 1950s. I became a Francophile during my high school years, and decided to learn German in college to get a better rounded feel for European cultures. Years later I was very lucky to marry a beautiful German woman I met in New York City.

 

Elisabeth Kaestner came to New York in 1968 and embarked on a career in psychology conducting research, teaching and working in private practice. In more recent years, she has enjoyed her creative endeavors as a studio jeweler. She has translated two books and several articles from her native German into English, in collaboration with her husband Paul De Angelis.




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INSIDE 9-11:
What Really Happened

 

The Reporters, Writers, and Editors of Der Spiegel Magazine

Translated from the German by Paul De Angelis and Elisabeth Kaestner

Some of the finest writing and reporting on the events of September 11 was done by Der Spiegel, Germany’s magazine of record. With its main office in Hamburg, base of operations for terrorist ringleader Mohamed Atta and many of the ohers, Der Spiegel’s journalists were on the front lines of the earliest investigation into the identitites of those who, on a cloudless summer morning in September 2001, brought Holy War to America.

The award-winning team from Spiegel was also at Ground Zero, talking to people gathering stories, interviewing survivors, seeking the words that might express the interconnections of horror and heroism. The award-winning team from Spiegel was also at Ground Zero, talking to people, gathering stories, interviewing survivors, seeking the words that might express the interconnections of horror and heroism. The words came to them from those who had been inside and somehow gotten out, and take us as close as we can get to what happened. Combining first-class investigative journalism and writing of extraordinary clarity, Inside 9-11 is a heartbreaking and gripping reconstruction of the events that changed us all. No book can encompass what took place on 9-11. But here is one that gives it human dimension.

The reporters, writers, and editors of Der Spiegel magazine who contributed to this book are Stefan Aust, Cordt Schnibben, Klaus Brinkbäumer, Uwe Buse, Dominik Cziesche, Fiona Ehlers, Ullrich Fichtner, Hauke Goos, Lothar Gorris, Ralf Hoppe, Ansbert Kneip, Dirk Kurbjuweit, Georg Mascolo, Cordula Meyer, Alexander Osang, Alexander Smoltczyk, Barbara Supp, Andreas Ulrich, and Thomas Hüetlin.

 

“Brilliant . . . A deeply disturbing and comprehensive overview, minutely researched.”                                                      —John Le Carré

 “The editors of Der Spiegel magazine have put together a comprehensive account of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The book is divided into several sections, including a chronology of the events of September 11 and background on the terrorists especially the years they spent in Hamburg, Germany. This well-researched effort is a chilling yet compelling study of the terrorists, their victims, and the loved ones left behind. The appendixes provide much reference material, including excerpts from the terrorists’ manual, a list of the known terrorists, timetables for each of the hijacked planes, Mohamed Atta's will, and a transcript of part of the infamous Osama bin Laden videotape. Even with the large number of contributors, the quality of writing and editing is consistently high throughout.. . . . An important volume in what is sure to be an ever-growing collection of books on the topic.”                                                      —Library Journal

 

 “As Germany's news magazine of record, Der Spiegel has always treated its readers to a unique fusion of rigorous reporting and vivid storytelling. Now its reporters have deployed those talents to extraordinary effect in a gripping account of the cataclysm of September 11th. Along the way American readers will profit from Spiegel's ironic hometown advantage: the magazine's editorial offices are located in Hamburg, the city where September 11th ringleader Mohammed Atta and many of the other leading hijackers apparently plotted the attack. As a result, Spiegel journalists have managed to draw a dense and compelling collective portrait of a handful of inconspicuous students who would ultimately become the world's most notorious terrorists. ”

—Christian Caryl, Moscow Bureau Chief, Newsweek Magazine

“Easily the most comprehensive reconstruction of the events of 9-11. It takes advantage of unparalleled access to police documents and reporting on three continents to paint a compelling portrait of the tragedy.”          —Ian Johnson, Berlin Bureau Chief, the Wall Street Journal

“I read every word of the daily newspaper coverage in the days and weeks after the attacks. Not only does Inside 9-11 distill the events of that astonishing day into a highly compelling and coherent story, but it's full of intriguing details I haven't encountered anywhere else. This is a first-rate piece of work. ”

—Kurt Andersen, author of Turn of the Century

“Der Spiegel, whose editorial offices are in Hamburg, was uniquely positioned to report on the safe houses, cells, and mosques that bred the terrorists . . . Inside 9-11 offers accounts of the terrorists' whereabouts from as early as 1992.”                           —The New Yorker