Czech Jewish author's son struggles for authorship

Prague, Sept 21 (CTK) - The son of the late Czech writer Dagmar Hilarova yesterday said he has been struggling for his mother's copyright of her diary she wrote as an inmate of the wartime Jewish ghetto in Terezin (Theresienstadt), north Bohemia, and which a Dutch author has unrightfully appropriated.

At a meeting with journalists, Evzen Hilar presented a facsimile of the diary, named "I Have No Name," that a Czech publisher's house has issued these days.

Dutch Miep Diekmann has repeatedly issued the diary in the past 30 years. She insists she has written it after Hilarova's narration.

Hilar writes on www.dagmar-hilarova.hilarius.cz that he struggles for returning the diary's authorship to his mother after it was unrightfully appropriated by Miep Diekmann.

Czech author and poet Dagmar Hilarova (1928-1996) published over 60 books in her life, along with articles in dozens of magazines, Hilar writes in the diary facsimile. He says she wanted to publish her Terezin diary as well but the Communist regime prevented this.

Before dying, Hilarova asked her son to see to the diary being published and reaching Czech readers, Evzen Hilar said.