Portraits of Anne Franck. A diseased chestnut tree that was fondly described by Anne Frank in her diary about life in hiding under Nazi occupation will be cut down next week.(AFP/File/Tim Sloan)
Posted on 11/13/2007 11:13:52 AM PST by NormsRevenge
THE HAGUE (AFP) - A diseased chestnut tree that was fondly described by Anne Frank in her diary about life in hiding under Nazi occupation will be cut down next week, Amsterdam officials said Tuesday.
"Initially the tree had been granted a reprieve until January but a new report last week showed that only 28 percent of the wood in the trunk was healthy," Ton Boon of the Amsterdam Centrum borough told AFP.
"It is irresponsible to leave it standing. The report shows the tree doesn't even need a storm to snap in two," he explained.
Although a licence to fell the diseased tree has already been granted, the Amsterdam municipality announced in October it had given opponents of the move until January to come up with a rescue plan.
The new report was so worrying that the municipality decided to go ahead and fell the tree next Wednesday.
The huge horse chestnut, estimated to be more than 150 years old, has been in bad condition for years.
"It is a miracle that it is still standing. We are really worried it could just snap in two," Boon said.
The tree sits in the garden of a canal house on Amsterdam's Keizersgracht that is overlooked by the annex the Frank family hid in, which has been turned into a museum.
"We both looked up to the blue sky, the horse chestnut whose bare branches glittered with droplets, the gulls and the other birds that seemed made of silver as they swooped by. All of this moved us so much that we could not speak," Anne Frank wrote in her diary on February 23, 1944.
The current owner of the tree wants it cut down because he is liable under Dutch law for any damage done if it is blown down.
Many people had lobbied to try to save the tree because of its history.
The authorities are planning to put a graft of the old horse chestnut, which will be 100 percent genetically similar, in exactly the same spot.
Portraits of Anne Franck. A diseased chestnut tree that was fondly described by Anne Frank in her diary about life in hiding under Nazi occupation will be cut down next week.(AFP/File/Tim Sloan)
‘The current owner of the tree wants it cut down because he is liable under Dutch law for any damage done if it is blown down.’
He should cut it down, and have it divided into as many blocks of wood as possible (say an 1 inch x 1 inch) and sold to tourists.
He make some serious money off of it.
Great idea. After all, the best way to honor the legacy of Anne Frank is to insist on 100% genetic purity.
Now why doesn't that make sense to me?
Nice.
Good idea. it’s a shame but that’s life.. it is a piece of history after all.
Great tagline! Could say the same about biblical fundamentalists.
‘Good idea. it’s a shame but that’s life.. it is a piece of history after all.’
I think so. Look what happened to the ‘copse of trees’ at Gettysburg, for one example. They were destroyed by souviner types, to the point the park rangers won’t tell you where the ‘witness trees’ are located in the park today.
From another site:
“”Nearly every morning I go to the attic to blow the stuffy air out of my lungs,” she wrote on February 23, 1944. “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. ...””
I swear, I hate the Nazis.
line of the day
I’m not sure of the Dutch tax laws, but my guess is they’ll find a way to take anything he makes off him.
‘I’m not sure of the Dutch tax laws, but my guess is they’ll find a way to take anything he makes off him.’
Fair point. Maybe he could make some dutch shoes for export.
(chuckle)
Damn, wish I had written post 4.
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LOL, what don't you understand...it would be exactly similar.
Post of the day!
3 points for that post.
You win; damn you.
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