Town authorities now want it cut down and burned to make way for a new roundabout. But some residents have become attached to the 40-foot oak and are lobbying to save it.

"The tree has not hurt anyone and is not guilty of anything," Kazimierz Polak said, adding that his group was appealing to local and regional authorities to preserve the tree.

"It is growing healthy and tall. Let it grow."

But the town's mayor, Maria Kurowska, said it was a reminder of Jaslo's connection to Hitler, whose Nazi troops razed the town in late 1944 as the Soviet Army advanced.