Tel Aviv - Israel's national library has taken two elderly sisters to court in a bid to obtain the papers of Franz Kafka, which the sisters inherited as part of the legacy of Czech-Jewish author and playwright Max Brod, good friend of the celebrated Czech author. The library says the documents should be reposited with it. The sisters, Eva Hoffa and Anita Weisler, who inherited the thousands of papers and documents from their mother, Esther Hoffa, insist the legacy is theirs to dispose of as they see fit.
Although the dispute is being heard behind closed doors by a court in Tel Aviv, Israeli media reported Tuesday that the sisters have also have appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court to be allowed to receive at least that part of their inheritance not connected to Kafka.
The saga began two years ago with the death of Esther, but its roots go back to 1939, when Brod fled Czechoslovakia ahead of the Nazis, taking with him Kafka's writings in defiance of the celebrated author's demand that they be destroyed.
Brod settled in Tel Aviv and when he died in 1968, the papers were part of the inheritance passed to his secretary, Esther Hoffa, with instructions that they be given to a public archive.
Hoffa did not do so, but kept them and when she died two years ago aged 101 years, the papers passed to her daughters.
Israel's national library in Jerusalem demands that Brod's instructions - that the papers be handed over - be carried out, and insists that it is the natural recipient.
The library argues that Esther Hoffa had no authority to pass Kafka's papers to her daughters.
But the daughters are determined to retain the papers and may possibly sell them to a German archive.
Eva Hoffa has also pointed out hat she is in dire financial straits and needs the money a sale would bring.
"My mother's legacy contains assets worth millions of (Israeli) shekels, which are being withheld without any reason. These millions are my mother's property and have no connection to the Brod legacy." she wrote in her plea to the Supreme Court.
Her lawyer, Yihsyahu Etgar, pointed out that in the 1970s the court had ruled that Kafka's writings were the property of Esther Hoffa, and were hers to dispose of as she saw fit.
He said the sisters had previously sold some of the Kafka legacy to a German archive, and it was their right to decide what to do with the documents.
"It is inconceivable that Eva Hoffa should starve while the millions lie in the bank," he said. "Who would have thought that Kafka's legacy would now be part of a Kafkaesque trial?"
