When Anne Frank was hiding in a secret annex in an Amsterdam home for over two years, a chestnut tree outside her window served as a comfort and a symbol of freedom. On Friday, a sapling from the tree was planted on the Pentacrest lawn, bringing a piece of history to the University of Iowa campus. 

“This tree will outlive all of us,” said Kirsten Kumpf Baele, lecturer and outreach coordinator of German in the UI Division of World Languages, Literatures, and Culture, at the tree-planting ceremony. “Let us care for and cultivate it together with annual commemoration, educational programming, literary output, and more, so that it will always serve as a reminder of Anne’s story and her dedication to peace in the face of injustice.”

At the ceremony, UI President Barbara Wilson said the sapling represents cultural understanding and free speech. 

“It really for me is a symbol of building consensus and building community. We talk about that a lot here at the university,” Wilson said. “We talk about diversity, we talk about how do we bring people together? How do we listen with the heart? How do we open people’s minds? And how do we create cultural understanding? And I think Anne’s diary has helped show the way.”

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Liz Tovar, UI executive officer and associate vice president of the Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, said at the tree-planting ceremony that the UI campus is a melting pot and living symbols such as the tree serve as a reminder of hope, unity, and resilience among people on campus.

“Today, we look to the past to plant a symbol representing Anne Frank’s spirit and humanitarian message for the future,” Tovar said. 

Kumpf Baele requested the sapling from the Anne Frank Center in 2018. Kumpf Baele said Iowa City is an ideal home for the sapling because it is a UNESCO City of Literature, the state’s original capital, and home to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

“Anne Frank’s tree will be planted in a place associated with free speech, activism, and celebration,” she said. 

Kumpf Baele said the sapling, on the Pentacrest lawn in front of Macbride Hall, is located at the intersection of campus and city life.

Members of the campus and the Iowa City community welcomed the tree on Friday evening. Nearly every seat in the Macbride Auditorium was full for the ceremony. The event was inside instead of on the lawn because of rain showers.

“This shift in location … has been a humbling experience,” Kumpf Baele said. “It makes me reflect on how Anne may have felt all those months cut off from the tree that she admired and how lucky we are that we have the freedom to go out and stand under its branches following this ceremony.” 

After the ceremony, more than a hundred people gathered outside and enjoyed a moment of the evening when rain wasn’t coming down and the sun appeared from behind the clouds.

The tree is now a part of the campus landscape and culture. Carolina Kaufman, director of education and engagement at the Pentacrest Museums, gave her first tour of trees on the Iowa campus on Friday. The newly planted chestnut tree is one of her stops on the tour. 

Kaufman told The Daily Iowan in an interview following the ceremony that trees are significant because they represent resilience, rebirth, and wisdom, and provide the materials used to document human history.

“I think, no matter what situation people are in, whatever tough situation they’re going through, being in nature is helpful and healing,” she said. 

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The tree-planting ceremony included a spoken word piece performed by Amal Kassir. The planting committee said they selected Kassir to perform because she embodies the spirit of Frank. Kassir is the daughter of a German-American woman born in Iowa and a Syrian man. In the Syrian war, 49 of Kassir’s family members died. Her performance drew on hope in the face of adversity and celebrated the power of the written word. 

“The problem starts with a closed door and keeping people out of the human heart,” she said. “When it comes to humanity, there is no us versus them, there is only us.”