08.23.2010 12:35 PM

History and memory

This is very sad.

I’m heading over to U of T in a few minutes to give a speech to the History, Memory and Politics conference – about the need to continue to be vigilant about organized racism and anti-Semitism. I may mention Anne Frank’s tree, too.

10 Comments

  1. My mistake. I thought this tree fell down at U of T.

  2. Sir Wilfrid L says:

    Any chance you might publish your lecture notes online here at your website?

    I’d be very curious to hear (or in this case read) what you have to say.

  3. Raymond says:

    Interesting history and indeed sad.
    Thanks for sharing.

  4. allegra fortissima says:

    “Nearly every morning I go to the attic to blow the stuffy air out of my lungs, from my favorite spot on the floor I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, and at the seagulls and other birds as they glide on the wind. As long as this exists, I thought, and I may live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless skies, while this lasts I cannot be unhappy.” (Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl, February 23, 1944)

    She was wonderful.

  5. Sandra says:

    Allegra fortissima – you made me cry. Hopefully, they can do something with the remains of the tree to commorate Ann Franks and what it symbolized.

  6. DAVID says:

    http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/30/anne.frank.tree/ I READ HER BOOK YEARS AGO TIME TO READ AGAIN THROUGH OLDER EYES

  7. Kevin says:

    We holidayed in the Netherlands in 2004, and visited Anne Frank House and saw the tree. Beautiful and inspiring. I was able to get through the museum fairly stoically, but looking out at the tree was powerful. There have been a number of cuttings from the tree taken over the years. I’m hoping one of those will provide a cutting to come back to the original site, and we can have a never-ending memorial to Ms. Frank and reminder of those horrible years.

    • Kevin says:

      Full disclosure: My beloved father-in-law was Dutch, and was in the Resistance during the war, couriering messages from one cadre to another. After the war, he said he never felt so free, and motorcyled all over free Europe with his brother just to see what he could see. Even met Edith Piaf at a Paris nightclub and was invited backstage to tour. His love for Canada was absolute – moved here with my mother-in-law years ago. He built a beautiful cottage (called it a “kotids”) on Christie Lake where, on the point, he proudly flew the Dutch and Canadian flags for years before his death. I have a very emotional attachment to the Netherlands.

  8. dirk says:

    omg even the wind is antisemitic…

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