Seton Hill University is known for its trees. From the sycamores lining the entrance drive to the honorarium trees planted by the junior class annually since 1920.

On May 7, the Seton Hill campus welcomed a special new tree to its 200 wooded acres. A sapling, grown from the horse chestnut tree behind the Secret Annex in Amsterdam where Anne Frank hid during the Second World War.

“We are incredibly grateful to the Anne Frank Center USA for this generous gift,” said Seton Hill President Mary Finger. “I want to offer special thanks to Kristen Keleschenyi and Dr. Lauren Bairnsfather from the Anne Frank Center for making this possible. Lauren has been a longtime friend of Seton Hill and the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education.”

"As Anne Frank wrote in her diary, ‘As long as this exists, how can I be sad?’ "

Seton Hill established the National Center for Holocaust Education on its campus in 1987. The Center promotes interfaith dialogue and prepares educators to teach on the topics of genocide and the Holocaust. Sister Gemma Del Duca, one of the Sisters of Charity who helped found the Center, attended the tree planting.

“It is particularly fitting,” said President Finger, “that this sapling – propagated from the chestnut that gave Anne Frank hope in her darkest days – is being planted along this road that connects the Seton Hill University campus with the campus of the Sisters of Charity. We believe it will serve as a reflective space where people can come to think, to dream and to hope. As Anne Frank wrote in her diary, ‘As long as this exists, how can I be sad?’ “

An official dedication ceremony for Seton Hill’s Anne Frank tree is scheduled for fall 2025.

View the CBS News Coverage of the Anne Frank Tree Planting Here

Photo, top: Sister Vivien Linkhauer, Sister Gemma Del Duca, President Mary Finger , Center Director James Paharik and student Isabel Gerheim.