<p>An unpublished collection of letters, manuscripts and drawings by Franz Kafka are now available online via the Israel National Library, which recovered the documents after years of legal wrangling.</p>.<p>Some 120 drawings and more than 200 letters to his friend Max Brod are among the archives now available for public viewing, the project's curator Stefan Litte told <em>AFP</em>.</p>.<p>The documents exist thanks to Brod's decision to break a pact with his friend Kafka, the acclaimed Czech Jewish author of "The Trial" and "The Metamorphosis", who as he suffered from tuberculosis asked his writings be destroyed.</p>.<p>But after the author died in 1924, Brod decided to keep the papers and in 1939 fled Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia for Tel Aviv with them in tow.</p>.<p>The Prague-born Brod, also Jewish, published many of the works, playing a pivotal role in establishing Kafka as one of the 20th century's key literary figures.</p>.<p>Following Brod's death in 1968, a multi-country legal soap opera -- some might even call it "Kafkaesque" -- entangled rights holders and academics for years.</p>.<p>After years of court proceedings and searches, the fifth and final cache was located in a vault at the Zurich headquarters of UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, and released after a Swiss court ruling.</p>.<p>Most of the recovered material had already been published by Brod -- but two surprises were in store for archivists in Jerusalem.</p>.<p>"We discovered unpublished drawings, neither signed nor dated, but that Brod had kept," said Litt, who showed drawings of characters on small pieces of paper, including drawings of Kafka's mother and a self-portrait.</p>.<p>"The big surprise we received when we opened these documents was his blue notebook, in which Kafka wrote in Hebrew, signing 'K', his usual signature," Litt said.</p>.<p>In one of the entries in his notebook, dated to 1920, he asks a teacher in Hebrew not to get angry for mistakes in his homework -- "because I am already angry for both of us."</p>.<p>But for Litt, there's only one regret: the "treasure" from Switzerland included German leaflets written by Kafka, but none of them unpublished.</p>
<p>An unpublished collection of letters, manuscripts and drawings by Franz Kafka are now available online via the Israel National Library, which recovered the documents after years of legal wrangling.</p>.<p>Some 120 drawings and more than 200 letters to his friend Max Brod are among the archives now available for public viewing, the project's curator Stefan Litte told <em>AFP</em>.</p>.<p>The documents exist thanks to Brod's decision to break a pact with his friend Kafka, the acclaimed Czech Jewish author of "The Trial" and "The Metamorphosis", who as he suffered from tuberculosis asked his writings be destroyed.</p>.<p>But after the author died in 1924, Brod decided to keep the papers and in 1939 fled Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia for Tel Aviv with them in tow.</p>.<p>The Prague-born Brod, also Jewish, published many of the works, playing a pivotal role in establishing Kafka as one of the 20th century's key literary figures.</p>.<p>Following Brod's death in 1968, a multi-country legal soap opera -- some might even call it "Kafkaesque" -- entangled rights holders and academics for years.</p>.<p>After years of court proceedings and searches, the fifth and final cache was located in a vault at the Zurich headquarters of UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, and released after a Swiss court ruling.</p>.<p>Most of the recovered material had already been published by Brod -- but two surprises were in store for archivists in Jerusalem.</p>.<p>"We discovered unpublished drawings, neither signed nor dated, but that Brod had kept," said Litt, who showed drawings of characters on small pieces of paper, including drawings of Kafka's mother and a self-portrait.</p>.<p>"The big surprise we received when we opened these documents was his blue notebook, in which Kafka wrote in Hebrew, signing 'K', his usual signature," Litt said.</p>.<p>In one of the entries in his notebook, dated to 1920, he asks a teacher in Hebrew not to get angry for mistakes in his homework -- "because I am already angry for both of us."</p>.<p>But for Litt, there's only one regret: the "treasure" from Switzerland included German leaflets written by Kafka, but none of them unpublished.</p>