Jaunted

Anne Frank's Tree Gets Reprieve

10/02/2007 at 3:05 PM
Tags: Museums, Memorials, Europe Travel (all tags)

When we visited the Anne Frank House last year, we were upset to learn that the chestnut tree behind the house was "seriously diseased." An icon of the home, the city planned to remove it because:

Its leaves curl golden in summer because of the horse chestnut leaf miner, a moth that infests it; two fungi, tinder polypore and honey mushroom, are rotting its trunk.

Now, it seems, the tree will stand fast after lengthy bureaucratic proceedings have worn the pro-removal side into submission. (Gotta love Europe.)

Museum officials--who originally supported removal--now say even replacing the tree with a sapling cut from the original won't fly. Instead, they're working to keep the tree as it is--a connection to the past and a reminder that a little girl once looked to its branches for hope.

Related Stories:
· A New Wave of Support for Anne Frank's Ailing Tree [NYT]
· Visiting the Anne Frank House [Jaunted]
· Museums coverage [Jaunted]