Netherlands ? The chestnut tree that gave Anne Frank a link to the outside world while she hid from the Nazis won a reprieve Tuesday when a judge ordered the city to reconsider whether the diseased tree can be saved.

Judge Jurjen Bade adjourned a hearing and took witnesses and court officials with him to inspect the tree, watching as experts tapped its trunk to point out the rotten wood afflicted by fungus.

He listened to experts from both sides, and looked to see what might be crushed if the tree fell, including the nearby Anne Frank House museum, which includes the apartment where the Jewish teenager and her family hid from the Nazis for 25 months during World War II.

Anne Frank referred to the tree several times in her diary. She could see the tree through the attic skylight, the only window that wasn’t blacked out.

The city ruled last year that the tree, estimated to be 150 to 170 years old, was in danger of toppling and causing serious injury or damage.