Victim's Name Misspelled on 9/11 Memorial

The memorial said it will be fixed this week.

The name of a 9/11 victim etched on the just-opened memorial in Lower Manhattan was misspelled, his family told NBC New York.

"I couldn't believe it," said Janice Hart, whose brother, Jeffrey Schreier, died while working in the mail room at brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald.

He was one of 658 from the firm who died that day.  His remains were never recovered.

The memorial opened on the 10th anniversary of the attacks. It features 2,983 names etched in bronze panels surrounding 30-foot waterfalls that flow into square pools that evoke the footprints of the twin towers.

Hart and her husband, David Hart, noticed the error Sunday after locating Schreier's name among the thousands of victims.

"As I was looking at the name, all of a sudden, I realized this name was not quite spelled correctly," said David Hart.

Schreier's first name was misspelled. The inscription reads "Jeffery" rather than "Jeffrey."

"You feel as though Jeffrey's soul is now looking down and saying, 'Can't you get my name right?'" added David Hart.

"This is the only place we could go to have some solace, and to see his name engraved incorrectly was very distressing to us," said Janice Hart. 

In a statement Monday, 9/11 memorial spokesman Michael Frazier acknowledged the mistake, saying "we regret the error."  The two letters in Schreier's first name were apparently reversed while entering it into a database, Frazier said.

"As soon as we found out about this error, we began working on how to make it right and we're engaged with our fabricators, contractors and the architect to do so," he said.

The memorial told NBC New York on Tuesday that the error would be fixed this week.

The Harts hope the promise of a quick fix is fulfilled.

Tragedy is not new to the family. The Harts said many of their relatives were lost in the Holocaust. 

"There are no graves to visit for them either," said Janice Hart.

"It would just be a beautiful thing for us to come down there and see everything perfect and know his soul is at rest," said David Hart.

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