Rare handwritten Anne Frank poem smashes auction estimate

A rare handwritten poem by Anne Frank, known to millions through the diary she kept while hiding during the Nazi round-up of Jews, has sold at auction. Its price shocked everyone in the room.

It was estimated to sell for about $30,000, but it went for almost five times that much, netting $148,000.

The poem, handwritten and signed by Frank, was in the “friendship book” that belonged to her best friend’s older sister, Cri-Cri. It was written just moments before Frank went into hiding. She survived for two years hidden away in Amsterdam, but was caught in 1944 and died at the Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp in 1945.

The eight-line poem is addressed to Cri-Cri and is dated March 28, 1942, less than four months before the Frank family went into hiding. 

The poem reads:

Dear Cri-Cri,

If you did not finish your work properly,

And lost precious time,

Then once again take up your task

And try harder than before.

If others have reproached you

For what you have done wrong,

Then be sure to amend your mistake.

That is the best answer one can make.

In memory of Anne Frank

The buyer is a private person who did not want to disclose his or her identity.