Hana's Suitcase: A true story

The story begins with a suitcase--a mysterious bag that arrived at a children's Holocaust education center in Tokyo, Japan in March 2000. Written simply in white paint on the outside were these words: "Hana Brady, May 16, 1931." Added to the inscription was the word waisenkind—German for "orphan."

Children who visited the center began to wonder about this person, Hana Brady. Who was she, and what became of her?

They approached the center's curator, Fumiko Ishioka, with their questions. Hana's Suitcase is Ms. Ishioka's answer. Chapters skip back and forth between Hana's experience as a Holocaust victim, to how the mystery of the suitcase was finally solved. Based on a radio documentary of author Karen Levine, this book is suspenseful, sad, and incredible in its untangling of a mystery that took Fumiko from North America to Europe, and spanned over seven decades.

Besides the amazing story of discovery, Levine's work also offers readers an opportunity to "meet" a young person not unlike themselves, who once lived happily in her own little world in Czechoslovakia before the Nazis turned it upside down. It's a call to appreciate the fragility of life, and to cling to those things--and people--we hold dear.