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Het Parool, Thursday 21 June 2007

Rescue on the way for Anne’s tree?

Is or isn’t the Anne Frank Tree doomed to die?
Tree experts disagree.

Patrick Meershoek

Green leaves and blossoms all over. For a tree that’s lethally ill the chestnut in the garden of 188 Keizersgracht certainly looks very healthy. Sylvio Mutal, who lives near the Anne Frank House, has a spectacular view from his window of the ancient tree, about which Anne Frank wrote in her diary on 13 May 1944: ‘our chestnut tree is in full bloom, from top to bottom. It is full of leaves and much more beautiful than it was last year.’

As a consultant to Unesco, Mutal (73) used to develop plans for the preservation of cultural heritage in Ethiopia, Peru, Mali and Curaçao. Now he has set his sights on protecting the Anne Frank Tree in his own back yard. In cooperation with alarmed local residents and tree experts Mutal attempts to prevent the cutting permit that the Amsterdam Centre District Council issued for the tree from actually being used.

The opponents to cutting disagree with the District Council’s conclusion that ‘cutting is the only realistic option.’ They believe there are numerous options to keep the tree alive for a longer period, or at least to keep it standing. ‘The tree is old and decayed, that much is true. But the District Council’s acts out of fear for liability claims in the event the tree collapses and causes damage. But we say: use every possible option to save this monumental tree.’  more pdf (23KB)  News Item


Sylvio Mutal has written to us from Amsterdam,  An excerpt is as follows:-

'The Anne  Frank Chestnut Tree is an old 150 year old in splendour in the middle of Amsterdam.  I live next to  Anne Frank's hiding place from where she was deported by Nazi Germany and killed.

The tree cannot be killed. The advice of a top expert on chestnut trees is required.

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