The Anne Frank Tree was a white horse-chestnut tree (Aesculus hippocastanum) which was prominently featured in Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl. The massive tree was one of the few pieces of nature visible to the young girl from The Annexe, the small building where she and her family hid from the Nazis during their occupation of the Netherlands. Binomial name Aesculus hippocastanum L. The Common Horse-chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) is a large deciduous tree, native to a small area in the mountains of the Balkans in southeast Europe, but widely cultivated throughout the temperate world. ... Annelies Marie Anne Frank (June 12, 1929 – February/March, 1945) was a European Jewish girl who wrote a diary while in hiding with her family and four friends in Amsterdam during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. Anne was born in Frankfurt, Germany, but her family... A 1995 edition of The Diary of a Young Girl The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank was published in Dutch in 1947 (and in English in 1952), using extracts from the diary she kept while in hiding during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands. ... The Annexe was the original title of the diary of Anne Frank. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...

Quotations from her diary reveal that the sight of the tree provided Frank with hope and solace. The tree, whose age is estimated at between 150 and 170 years, is thought to be one of the oldest chestnut trees in Amsterdam. The tree has been battling both a fungus and a moth infestation for the past several years but, after several unsuccessful efforts to save it, the Amsterdam city council decided on November 14, 2006, to issue a permit for the tree to be cut down. Amsterdam Location Flag Country Netherlands Province North Holland Population 741,329 (1 August 2006) Demonym Amsterdammer Coordinates Website www. ... November 14 is the 318th day of the year (319th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 47 days remaining until the end of the year. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Anne Frank and the Tree

The tree is mentioned frequently in Frank's diary, but her feelings about it are perhaps best summed up by the following diary entry from February 23, 1944: February 23 is the 54th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ...

Nearly every morning I go to the attic to blow the stuffy air out of my lungs, 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, appearing like silver, and at the seagulls and other birds as they glide on the wind. As long as this exists, I thought, and I may live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless skies, while this lasts I cannot be unhappy.^[1]

Otto Frank, Anne's father, described his thoughts upon reading the diary for the first time in a 1968 speech. He described his surprise at learning of the tree's importance to Anne as follows: Otto Frank Otto Heinrich Frank (May 12, 1889 - August 19, 1980) was the father of Anne Frank. ...

How could I have suspected that it meant so much to Anne to see a patch of blue sky, to observe the gulls during their flight and how important the chestnut tree was to her, as I recall that she never took an interest in nature. But she longed for it during that time when she felt like a caged bird. She only found consolation in thinking about nature. But she had kept such feelings completely to herself.^[2]

Efforts to save the tree

Concerns about the tree's health date back to at least 1993, when a soil analysis revealed that leakage from a nearby underground domestic fuel tank was endangering the tree's root system. The city of Amsterdam spent €160,000 on a soil sanitation program to save the tree.^[2] For the last several years the tree has been attacked by a particularly aggressive fungus (Ganoderma applanatum, or "Artist's Conk") which is rotting the wood and undermining the tree's stability. Additionally, horse-chestnut leaf miner moths have taken to eating away at the tree's leaves, causing them to prematurely turn brown and fall off. ^[2] Binomial name Ganoderma applanatum (Pers. ... Binomial name Cameraria ohridella Deschka & Dimic, 1985 The horse chestnut leaf miner Cameraria ohridella is a moth of the lepidopteran family Gracillariidae. ...

On May 26, 2005, the tree's crown was drastically trimmed after a six-month study by botanists concluded that this was the best way to ensure the tree's stability. However, the disease continued to thrive and a 2006 study estimated that 42% of the wood had become rotten.^[3] Botanists concluded that the tree's death was unavoidable and owners of the property decided to cut the tree down in order to eliminate the risk of the huge tree collapsing. May 26 is the 146th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (147th in leap years). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

References

This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 16 is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 45 days remaining. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 18 is the 322nd day of the year (323rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 15 is the 319th day of the year (320th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 46 days remaining. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 18 is the 322nd day of the year (323rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... A news release, press release or press statement is a written or recorded communication directed at members of the news media for the purpose of announcing something claimed as having news value. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 17 November is also the name of a Marxist group in Greece, coinciding with the anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic uprising. ... A news release, press release or press statement is a written or recorded communication directed at members of the news media for the purpose of announcing something claimed as having news value. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 18 is the 322nd day of the year (323rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ...

External links

• Anne Frank Tree: An Interactive Monument - website set up by the Anne Frank House as "a community of people and schools who feel connected to Anne Frank"
• Web cam secret annex - a web cam offering a view of the secret annexe and the chestnut tree