Stefan Horlacher was born and raised in Stuttgart, Germany, where he joined the French Foreign Legion before working for the government. In 1989, he decided he wanted to do something completely different and bought a book at the airport about Wall Street. He trained at a hedge fund before moving to New York in 1992. In 2008, he left New York and now lives in Las Vegas.
On 9/11, Stefan saved the life of Debbie St. John, who was hit by debris from the aeroplane that hit the South Tower. Here, he shares what happened that day and how it felt to be reunited 25 years later.
My office was two blocks away from the World Trade Centre (WTC). There were only a few of us in the office before 9am [the first plane hit at 8:46am] and I will always remember the vibration when the first plane hit. We couldn’t see anything through our windows, but my colleague from London called me a minute later and said: “Stef, something’s happened – a plane went into the WTC”.
Shorts
It was a mixture of curiosity and a desire to help that drove me towards the towers. I went across the street to a Borders Bookstore that was part of the WTC complex and it was already chaotic. These bodies were popping up in the plaza. We were just looking out through the window of the bookstore, shocked.
