Hana’s Suitcase is a deceptively simple book that reminds us how the lives of ordinary people make up the great events and tragedies of history.  It has two key themes, telling the story of a young victim of the Holocaust, and also how the tragedy of her loss 60 years ago can still affect children today.  

It begins in 2000 with the arrival at the Tokyo Holocaust Eduction Resource Centre of a small suitcase. It had a girl’s name, Hana Brady, painted on it, with her date of birth and the German word Waisenkind – orphan. 

Given Japanese society’s official unwillingness to delve too deeply into the events of World War 2, the eagerness of the schoolchildren visiting the centre to learn the truth of Hana’s story surprised the staff.  Where did she come from? Where was she going? What happened to her? So the centre’s manager, Fumiko Ishioka, sets off on a journey through Europe and America to find the answers for them. 

What she found is both tragic and uplifting.  Hana’s story was sadly that of millions of other European Jews under Nazi rule: gradual repression, loss of home, family split up, transportation to concentration camp, death.  What sets her apart is that in the Jewish Museum of Prague was a collection of children’s drawings and letters from Czech ghettoes that had been kept secretly through the war.  In there were some of Hana’s. 

And so Fumiko unfolds Hana’s short life – drawings of her home and her family, photos of holidays, letters to her brother, George.  These are hauntingly built into the book, telling Hana’s story as alternating chapters with Fumiko’s search.  It is both achingly sad and joyful as this little girl tries her best to stay bright and happy in the midst of brutality. 

But while building them all into a major exhibition for the Tokyo Centre, Fumiko found one more startling connection.  Hana’s brother George had survived Auschwitz and was living in Canada.  Amazed that children in Japan were so keen to learn of his long lost sister, he was able at last to share his grief and his happiness about her life. 

Hana’s Suitcase fits an incredible range of emotions into its 112 pages.  Hana dreamed of becoming a teacher.  This book shows that, finally, she did.  Today her story teaches children throughout Japan about the Holocaust and humanity.

Review by David Beagley

© 2003 David Beagley