Erection date: 18/5/2016
This tree was cultivated from the original white horse chestnut tree that Anne Frank could see from the attic window of the secret annexe, where she and seven others spent more than two years in hiding form the Nazis at 263 Prinsengracht, Amsterdam during the Second World War. It stood in the garden of a house on the Keizersgracht and was one of the oldest chestnut trees in Amsterdam, at over one hundred and seventy years old, until it finally succumbed to disease and fell down in 2010.
'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.' - Anne Frank's diary, 23 February 1944.
This tree was donated by the Business Design Centre to the young people of Islington as a symbol of hope that they will live in a society of mutual understanding and respect for diversity.
May 2016
Islington
Business Design Centre
Site: Anne Frank tree - N5 (1 memorial)
N5, Highbury Fields
Anne Frank's diary often referred to the horse chestnut tree that she could see from her window. In 2005 the Anne Frank House museum noticed that the tree was dying so it gathered chestnuts from the tree, grew saplings and donated them to a number of organisations. One was planted at the Business Design Centre in Upper Street. When it became too large it was replanted in Highbury Fields. The original tree was 170 years old and finally succumbed to disease, falling in 2010.
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