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Home , Anne Frank, Anne Frank House

What'sHappening I N C A L I F O R N I A ?

BY LAWRENCE GABLE VOL 11, NO 7 MARCH 2010

nne Frank was a teenager during The germinate chestnuts from the World War II. Because tree and grow 150 saplings. her family was Jewish, Frank Tree The museum has been donat- A they had to hide from ing the saplings to places the Nazis. For 25 months they lived Lives On around the world. Most of them in an upstairs room. From there she have a connection to could see a beautiful chestnut tree that became or the . Many schools that are a symbol of hope for her. Now that tree is named after her are getting one, for example. dying, but Sonoma State University has gotten Eleven of the saplings are going to the a sapling from it. United States. The only place in California is While her family was in hiding in Sonoma State University. It offers students , the , Anne Frank wrote classes in which they study and a famous diary. It is called Anne Frank: The other genocides, the mass killings of people. Diary of a Young Girl. The Nazis were sending On the campus there is also a spot that is dedi- away to concentration camps. During the cated to the victims and survivors of those Holocaust they killed six million Jews. Her killings. In three years the university will plant diary describes the fear that she and her family the sapling there too. felt, and the hope that she clung to. Now the sapling is only 18 inches tall. The tree that Anne Frank saw was a tall, The head of landscaping for the university is strong horse chestnut tree. She could see its an expert in plant diseases. He will keep it in branches through a skylight in the roof. She a special shade house. That will protect it from described the dew that collected on them, and rain, insects and rodents. By the time he plants said that it glistened like silver. It brought her it, he will be certain that the tree is completely some joy and hope that life could return to healthy. normal someday. The tree will grow to almost 100 The Anne Frank Tree has become feet high. Even though the old horse one of the oldest chestnut trees in chestnut tree in Amsterdam is Amsterdam. It is now at least 150 years dying, the new one on Sonoma old. Unfortunately, experts discovered State’s campus will live on. The in 2005 that it has a disease, sudden oak university will put a sign near the death. Because of that they must cut tree. It will have a quotation from the tree down in the next few years. Anne Frank’s diary: “How wonderful it is The is now a that nobody need wait a single moment museum in Amsterdam. Its idea was to before starting to improve the world.” What'sHappening I N C A L I F O R N I A ?

BY LAWRENCE GABLE VOL 11, NO 7 MARCH 2010 BIOGRAPHY ELAINE LEEDER DEAN, SCHOOL OF SOCIAL STUDIES, SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY

Elaine Leeder’s father fled the Nazis in Vietnam. In 1992 and 1999 she sailed around the Lithuania in 1939. Later they killed his whole world as a teacher in a program called “Semester family. That history filled her family’s home at Sea.” She also has spent time in Africa, and a with sadness and fear. For many years now family in Zimbabwe even adopted her. Elaine has tried to teach others In New York Dr. Leeder about the Holocaust. As a dean taught classes about the Holocaust at Sonoma State University, she and other genocides. Then she helped to get the sapling from went to Sonoma State in 2001. Anne Frank’s favorite tree. After a few years there she had the In school Elaine was not a idea to create a memorial on cam- great student, but she knew how pus. That became the Holocaust to build relationships. She made and Genocide Memorial Grove, friends with kids that others which opened in 2009. Trees there ignored. Because her parents line a peaceful lake. A sculpture were outsiders, she understood honors victims and survivors. It outsiders. When she went to also recognizes people around the “I’ve always been drawn college, she studied Sociology world who teach about and fight for to the underdog.” to learn about human behavior. human rights. Elaine worked her way through college. Several colleagues told At Northeastern University she could study for Dr. Leeder about the Anne Frank saplings. They ten weeks, then work for ten weeks. In the all agreed to apply for one. She has been to the 1960s she got involved in social protests too. Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, and she knew She attended anti-war rallies, and once she about the horse chestnut tree there. She is looking marched with Martin Luther King. forward to having it as a symbol of hope in the Dr. Leeder has earned degrees in Social Memorial Grove. Work, Public Health, and Sociology. In New Elaine Leeder does lots of things for York and California her work always related to fun. She gardens, swims and goes to the movies. the dark sides of people’s lives. She has studied However, the big part of her identity is this: She alcoholism, mental illness and domestic vio- is child of a survivor of the Holocaust. Her father lence. For five years she has lead a self-help never talked about it, but she does. She wants peo- program for prisoners at San Quentin Prison. ple to understand the evil that leads to genocides. Travel has been important to Dr. Leeder. She also holds on to the hope that humans will She enjoys going to exotic places like Hawaii and fight that evil wherever it appears in the world. ANNE FRANK TREE Background Information

The German secret police found Anne Frank, her fami- Topics for Discussion and Writing ly and a few friends in August 1944. Anne died of Pre-reading: at age 15 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration • Tell what you know about Anne Frank. camp. That was in March 1945, just weeks before Comprehension: British liberated the camp. • Why has the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam grown A woman named had worked for Mr. Frank. saplings and given them away? She helped to hide the family from the Nazis, and she is Beyond the Text: responsible for having saved the diary. Ms. Gies died • Why do you suppose seeing the chestnut tree gave at age 100 on January 11, 2010. Anne Frank such hope and joy? The diary was published in 1947. It has been translated • What kind of meaning might the quotation from into approximately 67 languages and has sold more Anne Frank have for you? than 30 million copies. In 2009 UNESCO announced • Why do people write diaries? that Anne Frank’s manuscripts have been included in its Memory of the World Register, the World Heritage List Vocabulary for documents. Article-specific: Nazi; sapling; diary; concentration camp; Workers in Amsterdam have put up braces and supports Holocaust; to germinate to prevent the Anne Frank Tree from falling. Experts High-use: symbol; to cling (to); to glisten; to donate; believe that it might survive only another five years. to dedicate; survivor; landscaping Sonoma State University has held a lecture series about Sources the Holocaust and genocides for 30 years. It also hosts San Francisco Chronicle reunions of Holocaust survivors. February 3, 2010 Santa Rosa Press Democrat October 18, 2009 The memorial on Sonoma State University’s campus is New York Times the Erna and Arthur Salm Holocaust and Genocide October 15, 2009 Memorial Grove. It was completed in March 2009. Anne Frank Center USA www.annefrank.com The sculpture there has 45 feet of railroad tracks that Anne Frank House Amsterdam www.annefrank.org lead to, and nearly meet at, a 12-foot, illuminated glass Sonoma State University www.sonoma.edu tower. A quotation from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stands at the base of the tower: “Our lives begin to end CA Curricular Standards (4–12) the day we become silent about things that matter.” English-Language Arts Sonoma State’s Memorial Grove honors survivors and Reading 1.0 Vocabulary Development victims of genocides, such as the Native American 2.0 Comprehension (Informational Materials) Genocide, the Armenian Genocide, the Jewish Writing 1.0 Writing Strategies Holocaust, the Cambodian Genocide, the Rwandan 2.0 Writing Applications Genocide, and the ongoing genocide in Darfur. ELD—Intermediate and Advanced The Anne Frank Center USA in New York got the Reading Vocabulary Development /Comprehension eleven saplings for planting in the U.S. The other Writing Strategies and Applications planting sites are the White House; the Children’s Listening and Speaking Museum of Indianapolis; Southern Cayuga School History-Social Science District (New York); Washington State Holocaust 10.8; 10.10; 11.7 Resource Center; the Boston Common; Central High School (Little Rock, Arkansas); the Holocaust Memorial Center; the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial; the William J. Clinton Foundation; and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

© 2010 Lawrence Gable www.whpubs.com