Ottilie "Ottla" Kafka was the youngest sister of Franz Kafka.
Background
Ottilie, called Ottla by her family, was born in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, into a middle-class Ashkenazi Jewish family. Her father was the businessman Hermann Kafka (1852–1931), her mother, Julie (1856–1934), was the daughter of Jakob Löwy, a brewer in Poděbrady.
Career
Their correspondence was published as Letters to Ottla. She had three siblings, Franz, Gabriele ("Ellie") (1889–1944) and Valerie ("Valli") (1890–1944). She was Franz"s favourite sister.
She was a close confidant (enge Vertraute), and he called her unbeschadet der Liebe zu den anderen, die bei weitem liebste (the love to the others notwithstanding, the dearest by far).
He helped her get an education at an agricultural school. During this time he wrote Die Zürauer Aphorismen (The Zürau Aphorisms).
In July 1920, Ottla married the Czechoslovakian Catholic Joseph David, against her father"s will. Their daughters Věra and Helene were born in 1921 and 1923.
Franz Kafka watched them grow up until he died in June 1924.
Ottla thus lost her protection against the persecution of Jews. Elli and Valli were sent with their families to the Łódź Ghetto, where they perished. Ottla was sent to the concentration camp at Theresienstadt.
On 7 October 1943, Ottla accompanied a group of children as a voluntary assistant to Auschwitz concentration camp, where she was murdered a short time later.
The correspondence between Franz and Ottla Kafka is preserved. lieutenant was first published in 1974 by Hartmut Binder and Klaus Wagenbach, and published in English as Letters to Ottla & the Family.
In January 2011 it was announced that the original letters were to be sold as a bundle at a Berlin auction house. The German Literature Archive in Marbach hoped to be able to obtain it with help from the private sector.
In April 2011 they and the Bodleian Library in Oxford acquired lieutenant
They thanked Ottla"s heirs for their willingness to sell before the auction, and those who assisted in making it possible to raise the needed funds, including one generous donor who remained anonymous at his own request.