Mythical status

Amsterdam, Aug. 17 (Reuters): A chestnut tree that gave solace to Anne Frank as she hid from the Nazis in an Amsterdam attic has been given a lease of life by a bureaucratic logjam.

In November, Amsterdam city council said the giant tree had to be felled because it was so diseased.

Nine months later, the council cannot say when the order will be carried out because of delaying tactics by those upset by its decision.

“If it was a normal tree, it would have been cut down by Christmas last year,” said Amsterdam inner city council spokesman Tom Boon. “But this has somewhat mythical status.”

The Jewish teenager described gazing longingly at the tree in the diary she kept during her two years in hiding. Anne and her family hid in an annexe to a canal-side warehouse until they were betrayed and arrested in August 1944. The towering horse chestnut was one of the few examples of nature and normal life she could see.

Defenders of the tree, like the Dutch Tree Foundation, say this is why it should be allowed to live as long as possible. “It’s a symbol of hope and life,” said Frank Moens, a spokesman for the foundation. “If the tree cannot be kept, then the symbolism is gone. You can replant it, but it will no longer be the tree her book describes.”

Many visitors to the house where Anne Frank lived are amazed to learn the 27-tonne tree is due to come down. “How can they tear it down?” said Ellen Bonner, a 50-year-old tourist from Boston, Massachusetts.“It’s a part of her. It would be like destroying a part of Anne’s memory.”