A Window Washer and his Squeegee
A Window Washer and his Squeegee
- January 22, 2025
For Jan Demczur, a man who immigrated to the United States in 1980 from Poland, the World Trade Center was like a second home. On the morning of September 11, 2001, Jan started his workday as a window washer in the North Tower. That morning, he stopped to have breakfast in one of the sky lobbies and enjoyed the beautiful morning view while drinking his coffee.
After finishing breakfast, Jan boarded an elevator with five other men, travelling to the 70th floor to continue work for the day.
Suddenly, the elevator began to shake, and then free fall down the elevator shaft. One of the men was able to push the emergency stop button, causing the elevator to stop, but the doors would not open. Soon, the elevator was filling up with smoke, and the men knew they had to find a way out.
They were eventually able to pry open the elevator door and saw a solid wall with the number 50 painted on it. The express elevator they were in was not meant to stop at the 50th floor, and there was no exit. At that moment, Jan looked down at his bucket and brass squeegee. Using the sharp metal squeegee blade, he and the others were able to break through the first two layers of drywall. But Jan’s hand began to grow tired and he dropped the blade down the elevator shaft.
He then used the handle of the squeegee to hit the wall as hard as he could. The other men in the elevator helped by punching and kicking until they made a hole in the wall that was big enough for them to crawl through one at a time.
On the other side of the wall, he found himself in a bathroom where he was met by firefighters, telling him to leave the building as fast as he could. Jan and the five other men with him climbed down 50 flights of stairs and exited the North Tower at 10:23 AM, just 5 minutes before the North Tower collapsed.
After escaping the towers, Jan walked uptown to his wife’s office, where they were eventually able to get to their home in Jersey City. When asked a year later if he would return to work as a window washer he said:
“I’ll go back... but when I go back, I only want to clean windows that I can get to with a ladder.”
This September, participants around the world can see Jan share his story, in his own words, as a part of the 2025 Anniversary Digital Learning Experience program. Register for this free program today.
By Felicity Richards, Education Specialist
REFERENCES
DiMarco, Damon, et al. Tower Stories: An Oral History of 9/11. Santa Monica Press, 2021.
Magazine, Smithsonian. “How a Squeegee Handle Became a Life-Saving Tool on September 11, 2001.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 21 May 2014, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-squeegee-handle-became-lifesaving-tool-september-11-2001-180951515/.
Nynka, Andrew. “World Trade Center Hero: Ukrainian with a Squeegee.” Ukranian Weekly, 30 June 2002, pp. 1–9.
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