1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Live TV
Latest audioLatest videos
In focus
Russia's war in UkraineIsrael-Hamas warIndia elections
Culture

Rare Anne Frank poem sells for 140,000 euros at auction

November 23, 2016

An eight-line poem penned by teenage Holocaust victim Anne Frank has gone under the hammer in the Netherlands for 140,000 euros, exceeding all presale estimates. Frank wrote the poem shortly before she went into hiding.

https://p.dw.com/p/2T6rx
Niederlande Manuskript von Anne Frank vor Versteigerung in Haarlem
Rare Anne Frank poem sold at auctionImage: picture-alliance/dpa/K. Suyk

Anne Frank wrote the book perhaps most closely associated with the Holocaust: her diary. But before she and her family went into hiding from Nazi occupiers in an Amsterdam apartment, she composed an eight-line poem on March 28, 1942.

It was auctioned in Haarlem, the Netherlands, on Wednesday, selling for 140,000 euros (nearly $150,000), surpassing all presale estimates. It had been estimated to fetch 30,000-50,000 euros ($32,000-53,000) ahead of the auction.

Anne Frank
Anne Frank is one of the most well-known victims of the HolocaustImage: Internationales Auschwitz Komitee

Dedicated to Christiane van Maarsen, the sister of Anne's former school friend Jacqueline, the poem contained excerpts from a Dutch book of verse. 

"Jacqueline was an important person for Anne," Maatje Mostart, a spokeswoman for the Anne Frank Foundation, told news agency AP.

Anne and her family went into hiding in July 1942. Betrayed to the Nazis, the Frank family was arrested in August 1944 and deported. Anne died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in spring 1945, just before the end of World War II. She was 15 years old.

The diary Anne Frank kept while in hiding, published by her father after the war, has become a symbol of all Holocaust victims. The book became a global bestseller, selling over 30 million copies in more than 60 languages.

kbm/eg (AP, dpa)

Skip next section Explore more

Explore more

Deutschland Film Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank

The Diary of Anne Frank

The Diary of Anne Frank

Hans Steinbichler has made a new version of the world-famous diary, written between 1942 and 1944 by a Jewish girl hiding in an Amsterdam attic with her family, before they are betrayed and handed over to the Nazis. (14.03.2016)
March 14, 2016
Film still, Diary of Anne Frank, Copyright: 2015 Zeitsprung Pictures, AVE & Universal Pictures Productions

Germany's first major Anne Frank film opens in cinemas

Germany's first major Anne Frank film opens in cinemas

The story of the young girl Anne Frank has been adapted for TV and the cinema many times. Surprisingly, there has never been a German adaptation for the big screen - until now. (03.03.2016)
March 3, 2016
Anne Frank

Anne Frank died earlier than thought, researchers say

Anne Frank died earlier than thought, researchers say

Jewish teenager Anne Frank died in a Nazi concentration camp at least a month earlier than her official date of death, researchers have said. The new study traces the final years of Anne and her sister, Margot. (31.03.2015)
March 31, 2015
Show more stories