Rare Anne Frank poem to be auctioned

An “extremely rare” handwritten poem by Anne, penned shortly before she went into hiding from the Nazis, is to be auctioned and could fetch up to 50,000 euros ($55,000), the auctioneers say.

The poem was written in the friendship book of the older sister of Anne’s best friend, and is signed by the Jewish teenager and dated March 28, 1942, auctioneers Bubb Kuyper says.

A proxy baptism was performed on Anne Frank on February 18, 2012, according to Mormon church records. (photo credit: AP file photo) — Anne Frank, age 12, at her school desk in Amsterdam in 1941. (AP Photo)

The auction of the 12-line long text, written with black ink on white paper, is reportedly only the fourth time that something in the young diarist’s handwriting has gone up for sale, according to the Dutch daily NRC.next.

She died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in early 1945 less than a year after the Nazis found her and her family members hiding in an Amsterdam attic.

“Autographs by Anne Frank are excessively rare and have come onto the market only sporadically in the past 35 years,” the auctioneers say.

— AFP