'Hitler's Tree' Faces Chop in Polish Town
Getting permission to chop down a tree for the building of an intersection is not unusual. What is slightly rarer is the discovery that that tree was bequeathed to the city by the most famous dictator of the last century. An oak tree that had been growing in the Polish city of Jaslo for almost 70 years now faces the chop as its links with Hitler are revealed.
Jaslo's mayor, Maria Kurovska, has reacted to the discovery with vehement demands that the tree be cut down and burnt publicly. She told SPIEGEL ONLINE, "If I have the choice between improving the traffic situation in our town and hosting a memorial to a mass murderer, then I choose the former."
Ironically though, just as much as the tree represents Nazism, so too does it symbolize Polish resistance. When Hitler ordered the destruction of Jaslo in 1944, the towering oak tree was one of the few things to survive the devastation.
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Jaslo's mayor, Maria Kurovska, has reacted to the discovery with vehement demands that the tree be cut down and burnt publicly. She told SPIEGEL ONLINE, "If I have the choice between improving the traffic situation in our town and hosting a memorial to a mass murderer, then I choose the former."
Ironically though, just as much as the tree represents Nazism, so too does it symbolize Polish resistance. When Hitler ordered the destruction of Jaslo in 1944, the towering oak tree was one of the few things to survive the devastation.