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Anne Frank's tree to be torn down
Wednesday, 16 January, 2008
The Anne Frank tree, seen through the window of the Achterhuis where Anne and her family hid from the Nazis (AAP)
An ailing chestnut tree which Anne Frank looked out on while hidden from the Nazis in a nearby attic is to be chopped down after a plea to save it failed.
The so-called Anne Frank tree, in the garden opposite the Achterhuis where the young Jewish girl hid during the Second World War, is said to be seriously diseased and a risk to public safety.
Its owners want to remove the 150-year-old specimen for fear they will be held responsible should it fall and injure someone, but protesters had campaigned to have it protected.
However, the appeals committee of an Amsterdam court has ruled a licence granted last March allowing the tree to be cut down had been granted for legitimate reasons.
Frank described the tree in the diary she penned while hiding in the annexe of a house on Amsterdam's Prinsengracht with her family and four other Jews.
The group hid there from 1942 until they were betrayed in August 1944, and subsequently deported to concentration camps. Otto Frank, Anne's father, was the only one to survive the war.
Following its publication in 1947, Anne's diary became one of the most famous documents recounting Nazi persecution of the Jews.
Source: SBS staff and agencies
The so-called Anne Frank tree, in the garden opposite the Achterhuis where the young Jewish girl hid during the Second World War, is said to be seriously diseased and a risk to public safety.
Its owners want to remove the 150-year-old specimen for fear they will be held responsible should it fall and injure someone, but protesters had campaigned to have it protected.
However, the appeals committee of an Amsterdam court has ruled a licence granted last March allowing the tree to be cut down had been granted for legitimate reasons.
Frank described the tree in the diary she penned while hiding in the annexe of a house on Amsterdam's Prinsengracht with her family and four other Jews.
The group hid there from 1942 until they were betrayed in August 1944, and subsequently deported to concentration camps. Otto Frank, Anne's father, was the only one to survive the war.
Following its publication in 1947, Anne's diary became one of the most famous documents recounting Nazi persecution of the Jews.
Source: SBS staff and agencies
