Anne Frank Center USA Builds on Success of Sapling Project

Partners with Ambius for Sapling Transportation and Logistics

NEW YORK, April 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Anne Frank Center USA, an organization dedicated to providing educational programs honoring the legacy of Anne Frank, is pleased to announce four new recipients of saplings grown from the horse chestnut tree that towered behind the Secret Annex in Amsterdam.

The recipients are:

• National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education at Seton Hill University (Greensburg, PA)
• Fairmont Junior / Senior High School (Fairmont, MN)
• Stockton University (Stockton, NJ)
• Carla Olman Peperzak Middle School (Spokane, WA)

Anne Frank Center USA will plant saplings at key locations for each recipient in the spring of 2025. The organization has partnered with Ambius, a leading provider of interior landscaping and plant services, for specialized transportation and logistics. Ambius will carefully monitor and manage the temperature control of each sapling throughout its journey to ensure safe arrival and successful planting. Each tree will become an integral fixture of the location where it grows and thrives.

"We are thrilled to build on our thriving Sapling Project with the designation of four new trees to be planted in a living tribute to Anne Frank's legacy," said Dr. Lauren A. Bairnsfather, CEO of Anne Frank Center USA. "With each sapling planted, we are sharing Anne Frank's love of nature with organizations across our coalition that have a common commitment to honoring Anne Frank's memory through education, free expression, and belief in humanity. We are grateful for Ambius' expertise and support in ensuring these delicate saplings can thrive in their new homes."

Anne Frank Center USA plans to continue the Sapling Project, driven by its message of hope for the future, in the coming years. The organization has received significant interest in the initiative and is currently maintaining a waitlist for potential sapling recipients. Anne Frank Center USA is also raising funds to support the Sapling Project, which is made possible by gifts from generous supporters. To learn more and donate, please visit: www.annefrank.com/donate/.

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, reflected 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."

Project History
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.

Anne Frank Center USA is the only organization in the world that has continued to propagate and grow descendants of Anne Frank's beloved horse chestnut tree. Over the last 15 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.

About Anne Frank Center USA
The Anne Frank Center USA traces its roots to the efforts of Otto Frank in the 1950s to raise funds to support the restoration of Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. He established the Anne Frank Foundation in New York as a fundraising organization dedicated to this purpose. The Anne Frank Foundation evolved into the Anne Frank Center USA, securing official 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in New York in 1977. AFC USA, which is still based in New York, functions as a decentralized organization. This makes it possible for the organization to remain nimble and responsive in a rapidly changing world. Over the past year, programs of AFC USA have reached hundreds of thousands of students in twenty-two states and the District of Columbia.

About Anne Frank
Born on June 12, 1929, Anne Frank was a Jewish teenager from Frankfurt, Germany who was forced to go into hiding during the Holocaust. She and her family, along with four others, spent over two years during World War II hiding in an annex of rooms on Prinsengracht in Amsterdam, today known as the Anne Frank House. After being betrayed to the Nazis, Anne, her family, and the others living with them were arrested and deported to Nazi concentration camps. In March of 1945, seven months after she was arrested, Anne Frank died of typhus at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. She was fifteen years old.

About The Diary of a Young Girl
Since it was first published in 1947, Anne Frank's diary has become one of the most powerful memoirs of the Holocaust. Its message of courage and hope in the face of adversity has reached millions. The diary has been translated into more than 70 languages with over 30 million copies sold. Anne Frank's story is especially meaningful to young people today. For many she is their first, if not their only exposure to the history of the Holocaust.

Contact:
Meaghan Repko / Chloe Karp
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher
212-355-4449

SOURCE Anne Frank Center USA