Thaindian News

London, July 22 (IANS) A handwritten story by Franz Kafka that was never published has been found in a secret archive of the author’s private papers.
The discovery was reportedly made after an Israeli court rejected an application to keep secret a vast collection of Kafka’s writings that lay buried in vaults of three banks in Israel and Switzerland for over 40 years, the Telegraph reported.

Franz Kafka was a Czech-born, German speaking author, famous for his novels “The Trial”, “The Castle” and “Amerika” and short stories, including “The Metamorphosis” and “In the Penal Colony”. Most of his works, however, remained unfinished at the time of his death and were published posthumously, after his death due to tuberculosis in 1924.

The ruling came after a group of lawyers and scholars, acting on the instructions of Israel’s supreme court, began opening some of the 10 safety deposit boxes containing the collection.

Eva Hoffe and Ruth Wiesler, both in their 70s, have been at the centre of a legal wrangle over the Kafka papers since they inherited the collection two years ago from their mother Ester, who was the secretary of Kafka’s great friend, Max Brod.

Ester Hoffe kept the contents of the archive, believed to contain letters, diaries and drawings, secret since she came into its possession in 1968.

A judge at the Tel Aviv district court rejected the secrecy application made by the two sisters and ordered them to pay costs.

Israel’s state-owned national library has insisted it should be granted custodianship of the papers on the grounds that they represent an important piece of Jewish heritage.