Gabriele Kafka
 | This article was nominated for deletion. The discussion was closed on 19 April 2024 with a consensus to merge the content into the article Franz Kafka. If you find that such action has not been taken promptly, please consider assisting in the merger instead of re-nominating the article for deletion. To discuss the merger, please use the destination article's talk page. (April 2024) |
 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Gabriele Kafka (September 22, 1889 – fall of 1942) was the eldest sister of the writer Franz Kafka. She was known as Elli or Ellie; her married name is variously rendered as Hermann or Hermannová.
Life[edit]
Gabriele was born on September 22, 1889, in Prague into the family of Hermann Kafka (1852–1931) and Julie, née Löwa or Löwy (1855–1934). She was the eldest of Franz's siblings and had two sisters, Valli and Ottla. She attended a German girls' school in Prague's Řeznická Street and later a private girls' secondary school.[1]
On November 27, 1910, she married Karl Hermann (1883–1939), a salesman. The couple had a son, Felix (1911–1940), and two daughters, Gertrude (Gerti) Kaufmann (1912–1972), and Hanna Seidner (1920–1941).[1][2] After her marriage to Hermann, she became closer to her brother, whose letters showed an active interest in the upbringing of her children, including strongly advising her to have them educated at a reform school in Hellerau. He accompanied her on a 1915 trip to Hungary to visit Hermann, who was stationed there, and spent a summer with her and her children in Müritz the year before he died.[1][3]
In a letter to Max Brod from August 1947, daughter Gerti Kaufmann wrote that Franz Kafka was regarded by his sisters as a kind of higher being.[citation needed]
With the outbreak of the Great Depression in 1929, the Hermann family business experienced financial difficulties and eventually went bankrupt.[1] Karl Hermann died February 27, 1939, and Elli was supported financially by her sisters.[1][3]
On October 21, 1941, she was deported together with her daughter Hanna to the Łódź Ghetto, where she lived temporarily with her sister Valli and Valli's husband in the spring of 1942. She was probably killed in the Kulmhof extermination camp in the fall of 1942.[1] Other relatives of hers, including her sisters Valli and Ottla, were also victims of the Holocaust.[4][5][3][6] Of Elli's three children, only her daughter Gerti survived the Second World War.[citation needed] A memorial plaque commemorates the three sisters at the family grave in the New Jewish Cemetery in Prague.[3]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f "Elli Kafka". Franz Kafka. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
- ^ "Sisters - Franz Kafka". kafkamuseum.cz. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
- ^ a b c d "Zur Erinnerung an Gabriele Kafka". gabriele-kafka.zurerinnerung.at (in German). Retrieved 2024-04-05.
- ^ "Valli Kafka". Franz Kafka (in German). Retrieved 2024-04-05.
- ^ "Ottla Kafka". Franz Kafka (in German). Retrieved 2024-04-05.
- ^ "Kafkas Schwestern". Jüdisches Museum München (in German). Retrieved 2024-04-05.
Further reading[edit]
- Gazda, Grzgorz. "The Final Journey of Franz Kafka's Sisters" (PDF).
- Stach, Reiner (2016-10-25). Kafka: The Early Years. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-8447-6.