Introduction

Table of Contents

Discussion about the Story of Hana’s Suitcase by Karen Levine. 3

About the author 3

Genre. 3

Theme. 3

About Hana Brady. 3

Plot 3

Summary. 4

Learnings. 5

References. 6

Discussion about the Story of Hana’s Suitcase by Karen Levine

About the author

The author of the story of Hana’s Suitcase is Karen Levine. She is a prizewinning producer and has worked for CBC. She won a gold medal at the New York International Radio Festival for a radio documentary for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Genre

This story is a non-fiction biography or a detailed description of the life of a person. This portrays the experience of an individual’s life events and was originally published in 2002. The author has developed tensions by alternating chapters between the details about Hana, her increasingly tragic story, and the search for Ishioka. After the death of Hana, the author has shifted the focus of the storyline to the older brother of Hana, George.

Theme

Perseverance is the theme of Hana’s Suitcase story. This is because this has been demonstrated several times in the book by Fumiko and Hana. The book unfolds several possibilities of thematic exploration. It involves the exploration of the holocaust and the way children have been treated in history. This also reveals the chances of talking about the impact on the children of other situations of conflict.

About Hana Brady

Hana Brady was born in 1931 and died in 1944. She was a Czechoslovak Jewish girl that was murdered in the gas chamber at a German concentration camp. Hana Brady and her brother George experienced their parents being arrested and taken away by the Nazis. The kids never saw and met their parents again. Further, they both were sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp. In the year 1944, Hana was transferred to Auschwitz concentration camp however, George survived as labour.

Plot

This story is based on a Czech girl, Hana Brady, and the way her tragic fate in the Second World War touched the hearts of children (Oke, 2019). Hana was born into a middle-class family. This story revolves around different characters and the main characters of Hana’s suitcase are Hana, George, Akira, Fumiko, Karel, Maiko, and Marketa. The story has 18 chapters in it. Thus, this story is about the biography of the short life of Hana Brady, which is a Holocaust victim and it also includes the efforts of Fumiko Ishioka who pieced together the story of her life. Fumiko is the curator of the Holocaust education center based in Tokyo. The book allows others to explore and understand the consequences of prejudice in terms of today’s world and history. Being a curator of Fumiko Ishioka, her job of her is to teach children about the darkest days of world history. In order to humanize the matter to her students, Fumiko obtained a personal artifact that is a suitcase. Hana was a Jewish child among 1.5 million who were killed in Holocaust. However, it is also a concerning fact that the efforts she has done to uncover the story of the girl who owned the suitcase are beyond her job description. After the efforts done by Ishioka, it has been identified that Hana’s old brother George had survived the Holocaust. Then, Ishioka met Brady and this became the subject of the CBC radio documentary. The book uses matter-fact and simple language to present truths in a way that the children can process (Quirk, 2015).

The play then begins with Ishioka and the students are searching for information regarding the Hana Brady. Their motive was to learn the truth to model a healthy approach to studying past horrors. While conducting these efforts, Ishioka and her students grieve the sufferers of the past but also did not forget that it is important to maintain respect and empathy for the people now. This story of Hana is not only concerned with memorializing horrible incidents which have happened in past but are also about using the knowledge of the past that can guide in making present decisions. The sole aim of Fumiko was to pass the story to the people and to make them aware of the importance of learning about diverse cultures.

Summary

Hana’s suitcase is a story that is attempted to piece together the life story of Hana Brady who got killed in Auschwitz concentration camp. The carefree childhood of Hana was cut short when Hitler is elected to power. Initially, the laws were sort of nuisance but were not unbearable. With the passing months, Hana and George felt that they cannot live as they want such as cannot play in the park, cannot go out to the movies, and going to school. They were allowed to get out of the building only once a week and that for only two hours. With this, her friends either left her alone or she found her isolated. When Hana was pressurized to wear a yellow Star of David in public, she decided to stay back at the home (Quirk, 2014). The joy and happiness for Hana and her brother disappeared yet they maintained their spirit by remembering the old happier times. After some time, Hana’s mother was taken to the Concentration camp in Germany and her father Karel has also been taken and she never got to see them again.

This touching story is based on how Fumiko found a suitcase that had nothing except the name Hana Brady and her birthdate (May 16, 1931), and one word was written was orphan. As Fumiko was a curator of the Holocaust education center and thus she wanted to find more about this girl. The book revolves around the story of how Fumiko has learned more about the story of Hana and the suitcase. Apart from this, this also encompasses the life of Hana and the way it was during the Holocaust. The book contains an emotional and heart-breaking aspect as the girl has gone through a lot of things at a little age. The story highlights the way Hitler treated people because their belief system was different. This book contains the life of Hana during the holocaust but it also signifies the perspective of a young girl. The dedication and commitment of Ishioka are commendable as she managed to find out such information with an empty suitcase (Taylor, 2016).

At last, George realized that the wish Hana has made true. This is because Hana always wanted to be a teacher and because of the suitcase, Hana has made thousands of students learn about her story. The most important values in the world as per Hana are respect, compassion, and tolerance. George believed that Fumiko and her students has given a gift to him and honour to Hana.

Learnings

This story is worthwhile reading as this makes the reader learn a lot about Holocaust. Further, this can teach the reader about the way one should treat others. Everyone is equal and needs to treat equally irrespective of whether someone is looking different and behaving differently. This story is thus remarkable as it shows that so little can tell so much sometimes.

References

Oke, M. M. (2019). Sisterly Devotion. Canadian Children’s Book News, 42(2), 4-6.

Quirk, L. (2014). Underground to Canada by B. Smucker. The Deakin Review of Children’s Literature, 4(1).

Quirk, L. (2015). What Can You Do with Only One Shoe: Reuse, Recycle, Reinvent by S. & S. Shapiro. The Deakin Review of Children’s Literature, 4(3).

Taylor, C. J. (2016). Sherrill Grace, Landscapes of War and Memory: The Two World Wars in Canadian Literature and the Arts 1977-2007. Manitoba History, (82), 50-52.