It’s Remembrance Week at Syracuse University, an annual event that honors the memory of Syracuse students and dozens of other people killed in the Lockerbie bombing nearly 35 years ago.

Historians from Scotland are spending the week on campus to see how the university is honoring the victims, as well as tell the stories of the first responders involved in the rescue and recovery efforts.

In December of 1988, a bomb placed on Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.

On the 30th anniversary, Colin Atkinson and Andy Clark wanted to focus on the first responders and hear their recollections.

“These are stories that hadn’t been captured before," said Atkinson, lecturer in criminology at the University of the West of Scotland. "These were typical experienced cops that didn’t necessarily disclose much to those that they didn’t trust. It was just a really good opportunity and a good set of circumstances to get those stories in record.”

“And what was really fascinating to us was just how local the impacts are of massive international events,” said Clark, researcher in oral history at New Castle University.

Atkinson and Clark assembled a focus group so first responders could share with one another and put together gaps they may have had in their memories.

“It’s a really fascinating dynamic about how people engage with each other when they’re talking about things in the past, how they correct each other and how I can sense this form in terms of what happened," Clark said. "That obviously didn’t tell us about the individual impact. What we did after that was I went back and interviewed the four focus group participants individually to get kind of a more in depth understanding of what their role was like.”

Atkinson and Clark also came to Syracuse University for the Remembrance Week to review the archives of the flight and bombing, but it was being on campus that was the true experience.

“To experience the campus, to see how Lockerbie and Pan Am 103 is remembered here and to understand how impactive it is here in the Syracuse community,” Atkinson said.

Thirty-five students from Syracuse University lost their lives in the bombing. Atkinson and Clark say their first stop when they arrived on campus was the memorial for the Pan Am Flight 103.

“When it’s young people, I think it’s different. Young people that we are maybe more close to in age, and it doesn’t seem like such a historical event,” Atkinson said.

“It’s also beautiful. It’s a really nice spot,” Clark said.

Atkinson and Clark on Friday will be at the Bird Library to share the stories of the first responders.