Jardin Anne Frank Garden in Paris
This very little known garden in Paris is dedicated to the young Jewish girl called Anne Frank who died at a concentration camp in World War II, yet became famous with her diary being translated into numerous languages throughout the world.
A bit about Anne Frank
Anne Frank was born into a Jewish family in Germany in 1929, but herself, her sister, Mother and Father moved to Amsterdam in 1933, which was the year that the Nazis gained control of Germany.
Yet they became trapped in Amsterdam when the Nazis occupied the Netherlands, and being that the Jewish were being persecuted, by 1942 they went into hiding in rooms above the office building of her father Otto.
Yet it was while here that Anne Frank, who loved to read and write, started a diary from her 13th birthday and this continued for approximately two years and in her diary one of the things she used to write about was the chestnut tree she could see from the attic window where they were hiding.
Unfortunately, they were betrayed and the Nazis found them, sending them off to concentration camps and all those under fifteen years of age met their deaths by the gas chambers, but Anne Frank was spared of this fate having turned fifteen only a few months prior.
Yet this sad story does not end there, as the first to die was her mother, and then an outbreak of typhus spread throughout the camp, which killed thousands of prisoners including her sister Margot who died, followed by Anne herself only a few days later, which according to accounts this was only weeks before the concentration camp was liberated by the Allied forces.
Her father, who had been separated from them upon arrival at the concentration camp, was the only survivor and he went back to Amsterdam after World War II had ended, where he met up with old friends and learnt that his wife had died.
Shortly after this Otto also found out that both of his daughters had died, and this is when his good friend Miep Gies, who had helped to hide the family, gave him the diary of Anne Frank along with loose notes that she had found, after the Nazis took Anne and the other Jews.
And because Anne Frank had set out to be a journalist and writer, her father Otto, decided to get her diary published, which then got translated into many different languages and this is still a legacy that lives on today.
About Jardin Anne Frank in Paris
The Jardin Anne Frank garden dedicated to this young girl who wrote about her experiences during Nazi occupation in the famous diary was first opened in the June of 2007 and is spread over an area of approximately 4000 metres squared.
This garden in Paris belonged to the Hotel de Saint-Agnan, which is actually rather apt, as this is now home to the Musee d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaisme, and of course Anne Frank herself was Jewish.
After being inaugurated by Bertrand Delanoe, the Mayor of Paris, you can now discover a small vegetable garden, a pergola, numerous bushes, plants and flowers, a small childrens playground and several park benches, where you can just sit and relax in the different cosy and peaceful areas in this little hidden oasis.
But lets quickly refer back to Anne Frank her self.. You see, the building where Anne Frank and her family were in hiding in Amsterdam was turned into a museum, and the old chestnut tree that she mentioned in her diaries was protected and conservationists tried their very best to preserve this 150 year old tree.
The tree itself was diseased but due to the symbolic importance of this tree, a campaign was launched in order to save it for a few more years. And in 2009 conservationists took saplings from the tree that were planted in many different places throughout the world, such as the White House, and another one of these saplings was planted within the Jardin Anne Frank Garden in Paris.
Unfortunately, in a storm in 2010, the original chestnut tree in Amsterdam toppled over, but luckily, many of these saplings are continuing to thrive as a permanent reminder of the past and the legacy that this young girl left behind.
And you will be pleased to know that the sapling planted close to the entrance of the Jardin Anne Frank garden is definitely thriving, even though it is still small.
Access to Jardin Anne Frank Garden in Paris
This small symbolic garden in Paris is located at the Impasse Berthaud, which is a dead end road, in the 3rd Arrondissement of Paris, and many people do not even realise this garden even exists.
But the entrance itself is on the right hand side as you look down the Impasse Berthaud only a few metres from the entrance to the museum in Paris dedicated to dolls, which is called the Musee de la Poupee. Plus located in the Beaubourg area, it is only a short walk from the Pompidou Centre and of course the Musee d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaisme as we mentioned above.
The Jardin Anne Frank garden is, like most of the gardens and parks in Paris, completely free to enter, and it opens daily from approximately 9am to 10am through to around 7.30pm of an evening.
And the nearest Metro station is called the Rambuteau on line 11, however if you are travelling on the RER you would need the Chatelet - Les Halles stop. Alternatively, if you are utilising the local Paris bus service then you would need bus numbers 29, 38, 47 or 75, but also do not forget that tours in Paris such as the l’Open Tour Buses also stop nearby.
