"From my favorite spot on the floor," wrote Anne Frank in her diary on February 23, 1944, "I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, and at the sea gulls and other birds as they glide on the wind. When I looked outside right into the depth of nature and God, then I was happy, really happy." Six months later the Nazis discovered the family and fifteen year old Anne was taken to the Bergen-Belsen Conscentration Camp where she soon died.
The chestnut tree, however, survived. Now about one hundred fifty years old, it no longer produces the brilliant colors of changing leaves. But before it too dies, eleven of its branches are being harvested to live and grow again in honor of the young girl whose optimism in front of evil has inspired the millions who have read her story.
Among the locations chosen to inherit one of the sprigs are the White House, the World Trade Center site, the Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas where nine black children were enrolled under the guard of twelve hundred armed soldiers in 1957, and several Holocaust centers. In addition, the Boston Common has been selected for an eleven year old Bat Mitzvah student who asked the mayor to dedicate her religious initiation to liberty and tolerance.
The big chestnut tree will soon be gone. May liberty and tolerance grow with the little saplings.
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