Rare handwritten note by Anne Frank fetches €140,000 at auction in the Netherlands

A poem written by Anne Frank for a girlfriend in 1942, shortly before she and her family went into hiding from the Nazis, has defied expectations and fetched three times the price expected at an auction on Wednesday 24 November in the Netherlands.

The note, a rare example of Frank's handwriting and signature, had been valued at between €30,000 and €50,000 by the auction house Bubb Kuyper, Reuters reports. It was bought by an anonymous bidder for €140,000 (£119,000).

The poem, dated 28 March 1942, was written by Frank when she was only 12 years old and just two days before Jews in Germany were ordered to wear the Star of David on their clothes. The first four lines of the 12-line poem was copied from a magazine, the periodical Het Ros Beiaard of 10 April 1938. The next four lines could not be traced.

The poem was for her friend's poetry album or what the auction house called a 'friendship book'.

The eight-line poem is addressed to 'Dear Cri-Cri — Christiane van Maarsen — the older sister of one of Frank's best friends. Van Maarsen died in 2006. Christiane was the older sister of Jacqueline van Maarsen, Frank's classmate and best friend.

The poem comes with a letter written by Jacqueline in which she says: "My sister (nicknamed Cricri) tore this page out of her poezie album and gave it to me around 1970. I know that my sister was not as attached to this verse from Anne to her as I am to the verse ...."

The poem offers advice to Christiane, urging her in times of failure to "once again take up your task ... and try harder than before."

Thijs Blankevoort, the owner of Bubb Kuyper told The Telegraph: "What is really significant about it is that it was written before Anne Frank was sent to a concentration camp. The poem itself is just a children's poem; in itself its historical significance is fairly limited."

Maatje Mostart, a spokesperson for the Anne Frank Foundation said that there was no doubt that the poem was genuine, adding: "Jacqueline was an important person for Anne."

Franke, who was born in Frankfurt in 1929 fled the Nazis with her family in 1933 and settled in Amsterdam. They lived in peace until 1940 when the Nazis occupied the Netherlands and they were forced to hide in a small annex above the office of their family business.

When the Nazis found them, Frank was sent to the Bergen Belsen concentration camp where she died in 1945. her father Otto Frank, was the sole survivor. He published her now famous diary in 1947.