I read something today that moved me to tears, although anything involving the Holocaust and Anne Frank usually does. The story that I read told about the Chestnut tree which was in front of Anne Frank’s Amsterdam Annex, during her two years of hiding from the Nazis. This beloved tree which was one of Anne Frank’s few comforts, died in August of 2010.
However, the tree will live on just as Anne Frank does. Seeds from the tree have now turned into saplings and the Anne Frank Center USA, has chosen the recipients of these saplings from a pool of applicants. These saplings will find new homes in a park in lower Manhattan honoring the victims of September 11th, as well as Little Rock’s Central High School, (a landmark for our country’s desegregation battle) and various Holocaust centers across the country.
In 1977, Anne Frank’s father, Otto Frank, founded the non-profit Anne Frank Center USA as a partner to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. The center’s mission is to use the spirit of Anne Frank as a unique tool to advance her legacy. The goal is to educate young people and communities in the U.S. and Canada about the dangers of intolerance, anti-Semitism, racism and discrimination, and to inspire the next generation to build a world based on equal rights and mutual respect.
I think both Anne and her father would be thrilled that her beloved tree’s legacy will continue just as theirs has. Anne said it best in her diary when she said, “The best remedy for those who are frightened, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere they can be alone, alone with the sky, nature and God. For then and only then can you feel that everything is as it should be and that God wants people to be happy amid nature’s beauty and simplicity. As long as this exists, and that should be forever, I know that there will be solace for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances. I firmly believe that nature can bring comfort to all who suffer.”
Charity Matters.
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