Annelies Marie Frank (June 12, 1929 – February or March 1945)
(FOXNEWS) – The Netherlands’ Bubb Kuyper auction house expected the eight-
line poem on a piece of old paper to sell for thousands. They just didn’t expect
to go for $148,000.
For that price, an anonymous bidder has become the owner of a poem signed
by Anne Frank on March 28, 1942. According to reports, her family was forced
into hiding in Amsterdam on July 6 of that year.
The poem was initially sent to the older sister of one of Anne’s friends, Jacqueline
van Maarsen. However, van Maarsen says her sister, who died in 2006, gave it
to her around 1970. According to the auction website, van Maarsen decided to
sell the poem.
The opening lines of the poem, written in a “poezie album,” or friendship book,
are traditional lines of encouragement that might have come from a 1930s
Dutch periodical.
The closing verses — which may be Anne’s own — say:
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.