Photo from Nov. 21, 2016 at the Bubb Kuyper auction house shows a rare handwritten poem by Anne Frrank, written shortly before going into hiding to Christiane van Maarsen, dated March 28, 1942. Credits: Maude Brulard, AFP Photo

A poem written by Anne Frank shortly before she and her family went into hiding from the Nazis will be going on auction in Holland shortly, according to the Mail Online.

Frank wrote the poem at the age of 12 in the album of the older sister of her closest school friend Jacqueline Van Maarsen. She died in Bergen Belsen concentration camp in March 1945.

Christiane ‘Cricri’ Van Maarsen, in whose album Anne wrote the eight-line poem, died 10 years ago. Her sister Jacqueline has now decided to put it up for auction.

The poem has a moralistic tone, urging the recipient to work harder.

As translated by the Mail Online, it reads:

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 memory one can make.

“My sister tore this page out of her album and gave it to me around 1970,” said Jacqueline Van Maarsen. “I know that my sister was not as attached to this verse from Anne to her as I am to the verse Anne addressed to me, and that is the reason that I am now putting it up for sale.“

Anne Frank was born in 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany. She and her family moved to Holland in 1933, where her father set up a business.

On July 6, 1942, Anne, her sister Margot and her parents went into hiding in the annex above the offices of their business. The entrance to the annex was concealed by a moveable bookcase. They were captured by the Nazis in August 1944 and sent to Auschwitz.

Anne Frank’s diary – which was published in 1947 and has been translated into 67 languages – was an account of her life in confinement.

Originally published HERE