Two truisms:
1) Trees are nice and you shouldn’t cut down trees all willy-nilly like.
2) Hitler was bad. I mean really bad. Like Lex Luthor x 100.
But what if these two truisms collide in a confluence of circumstances forcing you to make a choice between two truisms. A really difficult choice. What do you do if there was a tree planted in your hometown in 1942 to commemorate Adolf Hitler’s birthday?
Here’s the moral dilemma of the day. Was Hitler bad enough to make you chop down a beautiful tree planted in his name? (Hey, never ever say we don’t deal with the difficult issues here at CMR)
Here’s the story:
An oak tree planted in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War Two to mark Adolf Hitler’s birthday may soon face the axe if the local mayor has her way.
Authorities in Jaslo in rural southeastern Poland discovered the origins of the tree when plans were lodged to fell it to make way for a traffic roundabout.
“We obtained information that this is no ordinary tree but was put here to mark Adolf Hitler’s birthday,” said Jaslo’s mayor, Maria Kurowska. “So should I try to improve our town’s communications or should I allow a memorial to that criminal to remain standing? The choice is simple for me.”
But some are asking why should a poor little tree pay the price for Hitler’s crimes?
One Polish man asked “What is the oak really guilty of? It’s not the tree’s fault that it was planted here to honor the biggest criminal and enemy of Poland.”
Dilemma. Dilemma.
My quick response is to say rip off the tree’s branches and use them to beat anyone who’s defending the Hitler tree. Just kidding. While acknowledging I have the maturity level of a third grade juvenile delinquent I’m telling you I would actually tear down the tree just out of spite…and, of course, to improve the traffic blah blah blah…but mostly out of spite. You?
July 16, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Maybe if they put an Obama tree in its place – outraged generations hence can rip it out from the roots.
July 16, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Leave it up and re-dedicate it as something else. I hear that Sears just lost out on a skyscraper somewhere; maybe it can be the "Sears Tree."
July 16, 2009 at 6:39 pm
cut it down, put in your traffic circle and plant a forest to remember all of those innocents whose blood is on Hitler's hands.
July 16, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Cut it down and use the wood to make a menorah.
July 16, 2009 at 6:58 pm
I was thinking the same thing, Subvet. They could also put a nice bench under it and a plaque or something commemorating the victims.
July 16, 2009 at 7:09 pm
Why not put a sign under it saying "Curb your pets here"?
July 16, 2009 at 8:10 pm
If you would, see my (amateur) animation here.
If there was an "Obama Hill" (as in the animation), when (not if) abortion becomes illegal and [Pres] Obama is seen as the most anti-life president [?], should it be bulldozed to ground level? (When he lied, thousands still die every day.)
Just a thought.
July 16, 2009 at 9:13 pm
I'm for rededicating the tree to commemorate the victims.
July 16, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Cut it down and dedicate the traffic circle to the mayor who cut down the tree.
July 16, 2009 at 9:42 pm
I find it amazing that it took 67 years for someone to figure out it's origin, myself. personally, I would cut it down, and plant a new forest to honor those whose lives were taken from the monster. Make it a nice tree-lined drive.
July 16, 2009 at 10:23 pm
This is like asking if a child conceived in a rape should be aborted. Keep the tree! It not any fault of the tree that it was planted to memorialize Hitler. Rename it the "Freedom Tree" or the "Tree of Remembrance" or something. But if it is nice, healthy and an ornament to the city, keep the tree.
July 16, 2009 at 10:30 pm
I'd pull it down, I'm surprised it didn't come down before this.
July 16, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Actually I'm re-thinking..I'd keep it only if it were 're-dedicated' and to something that is in direct opposition to Hitler and all he stood for, maybe dedicated to all the victims who went through the death camps?
July 16, 2009 at 11:35 pm
This is pretty absurd. The Nazi regime not only planted trees, but erected bridges, buildings (even a Lutheran church), sewage works and many other civic accomplishments. Does this mean every ditch must be filled in, every building torn down and every tree uprooted if it is associated with the regime? The Catholic church coopted the Pantheon and put it to much better use even though it was built by Pagan Romans.
If the tree needs to be cut down, it needs to be cut down. But it is just moronic for us humans to associate any other meaning to an inanimate object as such. The tree sure doesn't know it has "Nazi roots".
July 17, 2009 at 1:52 am
What on earth is a tree, any tree, doing getting in the way of traffic any way? Of course, it should be cut down!
Actually, reading in between the lines, the thing that is really against the tree is that it stands where a roundabout ought to be.
July 17, 2009 at 5:00 am
Sounds like the mayor is looking for a way to justify cutting down a tree to improve transportation and, like most politicians, must politicize it.
July 17, 2009 at 5:56 am
…They're freaking out about cutting down a tree that's not even a century old, to improve traffic flow?
Jeeze, even the stuff on homesteads is older than that!
Don't really care who it was "dedicated" to or for– it's in the way.
Cut it down, put in some nice trees where they're out of the way and can keep the sun out of driver's eyes, maybe kill a little road-noise, and call it good.
July 17, 2009 at 7:45 am
I have a vision of the future sounding something like this:
"We dedicate this roundabout The Hitler Tree Roundabout."
July 17, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Cut it down after the Russians demolish Lenin's Tomb.
July 18, 2009 at 3:09 am
The old line "If it looks like a duck…." comes to mind. When you look at the tree, before it was known that it was dedicated to Hitler's birthday, you saw a tree and thought nothing of it. For what? Over sixty years the tree never caused a problem with traffic.
Then the mayor of the city says the tree was planted in dedication for Hitler's birthday and wants it cut down, for personal reasons, stating that it impedes traffic. Now people don't see the tree, they see Hitler.
Power is only given to something and/or someone if you let it. If you see the tree as a tree, then that is what it is, not a symbol.
If you need to see symbolism in the tree, think of it this way. The tree outlived Hitler's evil regime and stands for the descendents of those persecuted, their familys branching out to form something beautiful, and that is life.
Or do we, as a society, continue to feed the regime of Hitler, over sixty years after its end, and continue to live in fear of such and end a tree's life? We persecute the tree for what it is, just like Hitler persectued the Jews because of a symbol, for what they were?
And no, I am not a tree hugger.