Polen: Hitler’s Tree May Face the Axe

Authorities in Jaslo, in rural southeastern Poland, discovered the origins of „Hitler’s tree“ when plans were lodged to fell it, to make way for a traffic roundabout.

[Maria Kurowska, Mayor]:
„The project showed that in order to build a roundabout, the tree needs to be cut down. Then we received information from one of the residents that this is not an ordinary tree, that this oak has been planted in honor of Adolf Hitler during World War II. In honor of a man who’s possessed politics led to the destruction of 95 percent of our city 65 years ago.“

Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, triggering World War II and beginning more than five years of occupation. Six million Poles died, including almost all of the country’s three million Jewish citizens. 

Not everybody in this town of 38,000 shared Kurowska’s view that the tree must go. Kazimierz Polak witnessed the planting of the tree 67 years ago and he says it should stay as a memento.

[Kazimierz Polak, Local]:
„It was 1942; the Germans brought the sapling in an oak basket and planted it with honors in the central spot, on the crossroads of May 3 and Kosciuszki streets. Later the military orchestra played the anthem, everybody stood at attention, so everybody saluted the sapling.“

Polak, who was a child at the time, says his father later explained that the seedling had come from Braunau am Inn (in Austria) where Hitler was born.

He said the tree was planted on Hitler’s birthday.

(NTDTV)