Obj. ID: 46546
Memorials The Anne Frank Tree at Peace Park in Seattle, WA, USA, 2016
Name:
Anne Frank Tree
Description:
Beside a path on the edge of the park is a chestnut tree, with a pair of boulders beside it on the ground. The boulders are smoothed on their sides facing the path, and are inscribed; one with text explains the tree, the other with an inspirational quote from Anne Frank’s Diary.
Inscriptions
On the Left Boulder:
While in hiding during the
Holocaust, Anne Frank was
inspired by the tree outside her
window, from which this chestnut
tree was grown. Dedicated to the
City of Seattle by the Holocaust
Center for Humanity, 2016.
On the Right Boulder:
How wonderful it is that
nobody need wait a single
moment before starting
to improve the world
Anne Frank (1929-1945)
Commissioned by
The Holocaust Center for Humanity
City of Seattle Parks and Recreation
sub-set tree:
Live chestnut tree
The Holocaust Center for Humanity is one of 11 recipients of an “Anne Frank Tree” sapling in the United States. The tree was planted in the Peace Garden at the Seattle Center.
Anne Frank looked upon and wrote about a chestnut tree that she could see from her only window in hiding in Amsterdam. “As long as this exists”, Anne wrote in her diary, “how can I be sad?” The tree outlived Anne, but after being weakened by disease, it fell in a storm in 2010. Dozens of saplings were propagated, however, in the months before the tree’s end. These have been dedicated as memorials in cities around the world.
After care from Seattle’s Department of Parks and Recreation, the Anne Frank Tree was planted and dedicated in the Seattle Center Peace Garden on May 1, 2016.
The Peace Garden, built in 1996, is situated near the base of Seattle’s Space Needle. The central feature of the Peace Garden is an International Peace Pole inscribed on its four sides in different languages with the message “May Peace Prevail on Earth.” The garden consists of cobble stone paths that wind through an eclectic collection of boulders, trees, shrubs and perennials, and several modest memorials and markers the celebrate peace activists.
“Anne Frank Tree,” Holocaust Center for Humanity website , https://www.holocaustcenterseattle.org/visit/anne-frank-tree (accessed January 3, 2023)
“Peace Garden,” Seattle Center website, https://seattlecenter.com/explore/campus-grounds/gardens (accessed January 3, 2023)