h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

“chestnut (tree) of Anne Frank is ill and must be cut down”.
Amsterdam, nov. 2006.



Who is Anne Frank?

She was a girl who was hiding for years with her family
in Amsterdam (Netherlands), during world war two.
(1940-1945)

Why were they hiding? What had they done, or not done?
None of these reasons.
They were hiding, because of whom they are; Jewish peoples.
And being Jewish was the one and only reason that nazi’s had
decided, they would murder them in concentration camps. There were many camps, more than a thousand.

Anne and her family were betrayed, transported in cattle wagons
to Germany and murdered, or died by exhaustion

Anne wrote a diary during her hiding in Amsterdam. The house has become a museum these days; the “Anne Frank Home”.

You can read more about her, etc. at the official website/English

http://www.annefrank.org/content.asp?pid=1&lid=2



Nelson Mandela told a few years ago, that he did read her diary while he was in prison in South Africa,
Also because of whom he ís; a black man.


What about that chestnut tree?
Well, there was, and still is, a very big chestnut tree in the garden,
at the backside of the house in which they were all hiding.
Anne Frank often looked from the attic window at the chestnut tree behind the secret annex. She wrote about it in her diary three times

A quote from her diary;
“Our chestnut tree is in full blossom. It is covered with leaves and is even more beautiful than last year...” - Anne Frank, 13 May 1944

Now, nov. 2006, the more than 150 year old tree is diseased, but online it will live on. Leave your leaf in the virtual chestnut tree, forward it and keep Anne Frank’s ideals alive.

What does your leaf represent?
Anne Frank was in hiding in the secret annex for over two years. During the day she had to be very quiet and she could never go outside. She yearned for freedom. Anne had a clear opinion about many things. She wrote about them in her diary. Writing made her less sad and it gave her the courage to carry on.

Anne wanted to be useful to others after the war. Not only to the people around her, but also to people she did not know. Anne did not survive the Holocaust but her diary has inspired millions of people all over the world to do their best for a better world. Anne’s wish came true after all.

With your leaf you can show that you too have been inspired by the diary of Anne Frank.


Anne Frank Tree – An Interactive Monument


http://www.annefranktree.nl/index.aspx?lang=en


Greetings from Amsterdam

A picture of the tree, as it is right now, autumn 2006.

http://www.nieuws.nl/437892


They will take a cut from the old tree and put it at the same place
in the garden of the one that died.