Dutch Judge Grants Reprieve To Anne Frank Tree
BOISE AND AMSTERDAM -- A Dutch judge has granted a reprieve for the chestnut tree that comforted Holocaust victim Anne Frank as she hid from the Nazis, ruling in favor of conservationists who want to stop its being felled.
Judge Jurjen Bade ruled Wednesday that Amsterdam officials should explore ways to save the 150-year-old tree and not proceed with plans to cut it down.
Amsterdam city officials are concerned that it could topple over as a fungal disease spreads through most of the trunk. The judge visited the tree and said he was not convinced that it posed an imminent threat.
For two years, the view of a 33-foot-tall chestnut tree was all Anne Frank had of the outside world as she and her family hid from Nazis in their tiny Amsterdam "secret" attic.
In her now-famous diary she wrote: "From my favorite spot on the floor, I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree on whose branches little raindrops shine."
Anne died in a German concentration camp in 1945.
Conservationists and historical preservationists went to court, arguing the huge tree can be saved.
All this, as the Idaho Human Rights Education Center, builder of the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial in Boise, is working to graft part of the tree in holland onto a tree at the local memorial.
"This is truly a world class memorial to human rights, where Anne Frank is the center piece," says Amy Herzfeld, executive director of the Idaho Human Rights Education Center and we feel like it is important to maintain that connection."
Herzfeld says her organization would follow all recommendations and guidelines from the City of Boise's Parks and Recreation Department.
There is precedence for this in the City of Trees. A tree on Boise's Basque Block is descended from the legendary oak tree of Guernica, symbol of Basque independence.
The Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam has already taken grafts if it needs to replace the original tree with a sapling.
Regardless of what the court in Amsterdam decides, the Idaho Human Rights Education Center believes it can get a grafting of the Anne Frank tree for the memorial in Boise.
People visiting the local memorial say it would be a fitting gesture to a young girl's enduring optimism.
"All that she went though and she still was able to have hope and cherish people for what they should be," says Paige Harrison.
And people in Amsterdam fighting to save the old chestnut tree say it is a monument to the millions of people like Anne Frank who perished in the Holocaust.
Judge Jurjen Bade ruled Wednesday that Amsterdam officials should explore ways to save the 150-year-old tree and not proceed with plans to cut it down.
Amsterdam city officials are concerned that it could topple over as a fungal disease spreads through most of the trunk. The judge visited the tree and said he was not convinced that it posed an imminent threat.
For two years, the view of a 33-foot-tall chestnut tree was all Anne Frank had of the outside world as she and her family hid from Nazis in their tiny Amsterdam "secret" attic.
In her now-famous diary she wrote: "From my favorite spot on the floor, I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree on whose branches little raindrops shine."
Anne died in a German concentration camp in 1945.
Conservationists and historical preservationists went to court, arguing the huge tree can be saved.
All this, as the Idaho Human Rights Education Center, builder of the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial in Boise, is working to graft part of the tree in holland onto a tree at the local memorial.
"This is truly a world class memorial to human rights, where Anne Frank is the center piece," says Amy Herzfeld, executive director of the Idaho Human Rights Education Center and we feel like it is important to maintain that connection."
Herzfeld says her organization would follow all recommendations and guidelines from the City of Boise's Parks and Recreation Department.
There is precedence for this in the City of Trees. A tree on Boise's Basque Block is descended from the legendary oak tree of Guernica, symbol of Basque independence.
The Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam has already taken grafts if it needs to replace the original tree with a sapling.
Regardless of what the court in Amsterdam decides, the Idaho Human Rights Education Center believes it can get a grafting of the Anne Frank tree for the memorial in Boise.
People visiting the local memorial say it would be a fitting gesture to a young girl's enduring optimism.
"All that she went though and she still was able to have hope and cherish people for what they should be," says Paige Harrison.
And people in Amsterdam fighting to save the old chestnut tree say it is a monument to the millions of people like Anne Frank who perished in the Holocaust.
