Ottla Kafka
Ottilie "Ottla" Kafka was the youngest sister of Franz Kafka. His favourite sister, she was probably also the relative closest to him and supported him in difficult times. Their correspondence was published as Letters to Ottla. She was murdered in the Holocaust.
Life
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, her mother, Julie, was the daughter of Jakob Löwy, a brewer in Poděbrady. She had three siblings, Franz, Gabriele and Valerie . She was Franz's favourite sister. She was a close confidant, and he called her unbeschadet der Liebe zu den anderen, die bei weitem liebste. He helped her get an education at an agricultural school. She lived and worked at the agricultural estate of her brother-in-law, Karl Hermann, in West Bohemian Zürau. In 1916–17, she provided her brother with a writing refuge where he was able to write many short stories, and he also lived on Hermann's estate from September 1917 to April 1918, already suffering from tuberculosis. During this time he wrote Die Zürauer Aphorismen.In July 1920, Ottla married the Czech 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. The marriage was not happy and they were divorced in August 1942. Ottla thus lost her protection against the persecution of Jews.
Like many other Jews from Prague, Ottla and her sisters were deported during World War II by the Nazis. Elli and Valli were sent with their families to the Łódź Ghetto, and then to Chelmno where they were murdered. Ottla was sent to the concentration camp at Theresienstadt. On 5 October 1943, Ottla accompanied a group of children as a voluntary assistant. When the transport reached Auschwitz concentration camp two days later, all were murdered in the gas chambers.