A World War II concentration camp survivor has helped keep the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust alive, by planting a special tree at St Philip’s School, Chessington.
The sapling is a direct descendent of a sycamore planted in the Theresienstadt camp, in the modern day Czech Republic, from which an eight-year-old Steven Frank was liberated in 1945 - less than a week before he was scheduled for extermination.
Now 60ft tall and relocated in front of the former camp’s main gate, the Tree of Life was kept alive by children using their meagre water rations, with others taking over as its carers were slowly taken to their deaths at Auschwitz.
Keen gardener Mr Frank only became aware of the tree, which was smuggled into the camp as a sapling in a workman’s boot, many years later, and collected seeds from it during a visit in 1996.
The 72-year-old grandfather, who planted the sapling to mark the United Nations Day of Peace on September 21, said nurturing the young tree had a particular significance for him.
He said: “The original tree is the equivalent of me - we were both young when the war ended.
“I am now taking care of what you could call the grandchildren of the original. They look lovely, just as my grandchildren do.”
The sapling is one of about 600 direct descendants of the Tree of Life planted across the globe, including outside Israel’s main Holocaust Centre and at sites in Washington DC, San Francisco and Philadelphia.
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