Raritan Valley Community College to receive sapling from original tree mentioned in Anne Frank’s Diary
BRANCHBURG TOWNSHIP, NJ (Somerset County) – Raritan Valley Community College (RVCC) is one of six new recipients that will receive saplings grown from the horse chestnut tree that towered behind Anne Frank’s Secret Annex in Amsterdam.
The announcement was made recently by Anne Frank Center USA, an organization dedicated to transformative education honoring the legacy of Anne Frank.
In addition to RVCC, the other new recipients of tree saplings include:
• Anne Frank LA, Los Angeles, CA
• College of Saint Mary, Omaha, Nebraska
• Community Day School, Pittsburgh, PA
• Gratz College, Melrose Park, PA
• Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center, White Plains, NY
Anne Frank Center USA will plant saplings at key locations for each recipient in the spring of 2024, with plans to launch an extension of the program, the Anne Frank Garden Initiative, in 2025. The planting at RVCC, which is being supported through the College’s Institute of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, is scheduled for June.
With each sapling planted, Anne Frank Center USA is sharing Anne Frank’s love of nature with organizations across its coalition that have a common commitment to honoring Anne Frank’s memory through education, free expression, and belief in humanity.
RVCC first applied to participate in the sampling project in May 2020, inspired by the memory of Margit Feldman, a survivor of the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps and a co-founder of the College’s Institute of Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Remarkably, Feldman was born on the same date as Anne Frank: June 12, 1929. Feldman passed away in April 2020, and both she and Anne were an inspiration to many.
The Tree in Anne’s Diary
From her only window to the outside world, Anne Frank could see the sky, birds, and a majestic chestnut tree. “As long as this exists,” she wrote in her diary, “how can I be sad?”
Anne Frank wrote about her beloved chestnut tree in three separate diary entries in 1944, marking the changing of the seasons as she and others hid from the Nazis.
February 23, 1944
“The two of us looked out at the blue sky, the bare chestnut tree glistening with dew, the seagulls and other birds glinting with silver as they swooped through the air, and we were so moved and entranced that we couldn’t speak.”
April 18, 1944
“April is glorious, not too hot and not too cold, with occasional light showers. Our chestnut tree is in leaf, and here and there you can already see a few small blossoms.”
May 13, 1944
“Our chestnut tree is in full bloom. It’s covered with leaves and is even more beautiful than last year.”
In a 1968 speech, Anne Frank’s father, Otto Frank, spoke about the impact of the chestnut tree on his youngest daughter. “How could I have known,” he asked, “how much it meant to Anne to see a patch of blue sky, to observe the seagulls as they flew, and how important the chestnut tree was for her, when I think that she never showed any interest in nature.” “Still,” he acknowledged, “she longed for it when she felt like a bird in a cage.”
The Sapling Project began in 2009 with the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam’s efforts to preserve the original chestnut tree by gathering and germinating chestnuts and donating the saplings to organizations dedicated to Anne Frank’s memory.
Despite efforts to strengthen the original chestnut tree, the aged, diseased tree toppled in a windstorm in 2010. It was one of the oldest chestnut trees in Amsterdam.
Over the last 10 years, Anne Frank Center USA has awarded saplings to sites across the United States, including the U.S. Capitol, the United Nations Headquarters, and others. Taken together, these trees form a living memorial with branches reaching from coast to coast.
