As part of 75 years of Celebrating Freedom Together, the Anne Frank Freedom Tree has been planted in Aalten.
This special tree is one of the descendants of the chestnut tree that stood in the garden of the Secret Annex on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam. Together with her father, mother and older sister Margot, the 13-year-old Jewish girl Anne Frank was in hiding there from July 1942 to August 1944.
Anne looked out exactly at the large chestnut tree that stood in the garden of the Secret Annex. She wrote about the tree three times in her world-famous diary, most recently on 13 May 1944:
“Our chestnut tree is in full bloom from top to bottom, it is heavily laden with leaves and much more beautiful than last year”.
On 4 August 1944, the family was discovered and transported to Dutch and German concentration camps. Only Anne’s father would survive the war.
Anne Frank died on 31 March 1945 in Bergen-Belsen, aged 15.
In August 2010, the chestnut tree that Anne Frank wrote about was felled by a storm. Volunteers collected the chestnuts that have now grown into large trees, varying in length from one to five meters high. One of these descendants has now been planted in the park at Aalten station.
The white chestnut was a symbol of hope for Anne Frank. We have planted the tree as a symbol of meeting and living together regardless of race, orientation or religion and gives rise to reflection on peace and freedom, then and now.
The Anne Frank Freedom Tree is an initiative of the National Hiding Museum as part of Gelderland Commemorates – 2020 Celebrating Freedom Together.
