Hana's Suitcase Summary

“Hana’s Suitcase” is a true story about a thirteen year old girl named Hana. This CBC broadcast talks about Hana and her family’s struggles throughout the Holocaust. The speakers of this show are a young woman named Fumiko and Hana’s older brother and Holocaust survivor George Brady. Fumiko is known as a museum curator for a Holocaust education center in Tokyo, Japan. She wanted to have different items from the Holocaust displayed in her museum; but she specifically wanted a suitcase. Fumiko wanted to see what children had left behind in their suitcases because she thought it would be an important item for children in Japan to see. When she was given a suitcase she wanted to learn more about that specific child, Hana Brady. Frumiko decided

to write to Terezin Concentration Camp to see if Hana had any drawings, as most little girls drew while in the concentration camp. After receiving Hanas drawings Fumiko wanted to see a picture behind the drawings, she wrote again and then later decided to attend the museum herself. Although she did not end up finding a picture of Hana, she did receive the information that Hana’s brother and friend from the camp were still alive. Next she moved on to a Jewish museum in Prague. There she found George Brady’s friend who then gave Fumiko George’s current address in Toronto, Canada. Following that she composed a letter to George who then sent her back a photo of Hana. She was so ecstatic that she decided to go and visit George in Canada.
When Fumiko visited George she brought him a picture of the children in Japan at the education center.

She spoke about the small wings group and the children who participated. As a matter a fact, George has a 17 year old daughter, Laura Hana, who wants to travel to Japan to meet those children. Despite the fact that George now has a happy family of his own, his life was not always easy. George and his sister Hana grew up in a town being the only two Jewish children. Their father was a very popular man and their mother was one of the kindest people you would ever meet. Their lives were fairly normal, they enjoyed skating and skiing; however, that all changed when school was no longer an option and the children had to move in with their uncle. On May 14th 1942, less than a year later, both Hana and George were torn from their home and taken to Terezin Concentration Camp. Over a series of two years Hana and George rarely got to see one another, they were eventually transported to Auschwits Concentration Camp in Poland where they thought they would meet again. Unfortunately that was not the case, Hana was killed a day after arriving: in the gas chambers. To this day Hana’s death is still a burden on George, she was the most courageous girl he ever knew and she is never to be forgotten. She is truly

extraordinary.