Journey of Hana's Suitcase: Related articles

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2011-12-01

Poignant story touches the world

The most recent update from the Brady family! Paul Lungen interviews George Brady and his family

looking back on the past 10 years. Paul's article about the story of Hana in 2001 was the very first to be published in the news. Karen Levine, the author of Hana's Suitcase, read it and contacted George Brady. And now the story is being told in theaters, school textbooks, Japanese manga, and the film, and more.

2010-09-03

2010-09-02

Tears for Hana : Tragedy comes home, The Hamilton Spectator, October 2, 2010

Tears for Hana: Tragedy comes home
Paul Benedetti
The Hamilton Spectator

October 2, 2010

We are driving home from Toronto and my daughter is in the backseat, crying.

It is dark and I cannot see her face in the rearview mirror, but I can hear her. She is not gently crying or sniffling the way a 12-year-old might if her iPod broke or she lost her backpack. She is sobbing with that kind of hard-to-catch-your-breath sound that makes me turn for a moment to check on her.

“It’s so sad,” she says, the tears running down her face. “It’s so sad.”

It is April of last year and we are on our way home from the premiere of a docudrama called Inside Hana’s Suitcase. The car is quiet except for Ella’s crying, which has almost subsided now. It’s hard to talk, hard to know what to say.

The movie is about the life of George Brady. He is the 82-year-old father of our very good friend Doug Brady, who is married to my wife’s life-long friend Carol. Over the decades, we have come to know George. He is an inordinately generous man and has invited us to his cottage and his ski chalet and we have sat and drank coffee and wine with his wife and him many times over the years. He is a natural storyteller, smart and funny and articulate, his sometimes thick Czech accent adding to the texture of the tale.

While he talks, it is impossible not to notice the small numbers tattooed on his arm. Despite his deep tan, they are there, an indelible reminder of his history, of the story he has never told us. Of course, we knew the basics, that his mother and father were killed at Auschwitiz. Later, he and his younger sister Hana would be transported by the Nazis to the concentration camp at Terezin and then transferred to Auschwitz. We knew that Hana would be killed the day she arrived. Only George survived, but we knew little else.

As Doug had explained to us, his father did not dwell on the past, did not want to burden his children with the darkness of his own childhood. Instead, he embraced his new life in Canada. Starting with virtually nothing, he built a successful business, married, helped raise three boys and later, a girl, and lived life with the vigour that perhaps can only come from someone who has seen death up close.

George, even in his 80s is a wonder. He is the first one up to play tennis. He is the first one dressed and on the ski hill. He is the first one into the hot tub and the first one, minutes later, to dive into the bracing waters of the lake. In that life, filled with hard work and family and fun, there wasn’t room for haunting, terrible memories. Why darken the brighly-lit present? Why dull the even brighter future? So, the memories stayed inside him, until his 70s, when they began to surface to winterrupt his life. At the same time, a teacher in Tokyo trying to explain the Holocaust to her young pupils, was given an artifact – a suitcase, Hana Brady’s suitcase. That led the teacher to Toronto and to George and her letter to him started a chain of events that would forever change his life. A book, television documentaries and a feature film would document his heartbreaking story of the war. And, most importantly, it would document for the world, the short life of Hana.

In the car last spring as we drove home in the dark, Ella finally broke the silence to say, “I wish all my friends could see this movie. I wish they could all know about Hana.”

That night in bed, after we had switched off the lights, my wife said, “She’s right.”

“What?” I said.

“Ella’s right. I’m going to do it.”

“Do what?” I said.

“I’m going to find a way to bring Inside Hana’s Suitcase here, to Hamilton. So that every kid can see the movie and learn about Hana.”

And, with a lot of help from a lot of people, she did.

Inside Hana’s Suitcase will be seen for free by more than 4,000 school children this week. A gala presentation of the film will be held Monday, Oct. 4 at Hamilton Place. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.

http://www.thespec.com/print/article/263459

2010-09-01

Carrying her case, The Hamilton Spectator, Sept 28, 2010

Carrying her case

September 28, 2010

In some ways it is an ordinary suitcase.
Brown and sturdy. Scuffed and battered. Certainly not beautiful.
German words are painted on it in thick, white letters:

Hanna Brady
gob 16/v. 1931
Waisenkind

A name. Birth date. The word ‘orphan.’

******

Hana’s story begins with her suitcase and travels the world.

It has happy chapters in a small town in the former Czechoslovakia. It has terrible chapters in the Terezin concentration camp and Auschwitz. Ten years ago a chapter of persistence began in Tokyo. There is a chapter of hope and peace in Toronto. There are chapters in unexpected places such as South Africa, Mexico, Australia, China and a dozen cities across Canada.

Soon, there will be a grand chapter of Hana’s story in Hamilton.

*****

Before he tells the story, George Brady puts in his hearing aid.

He is 82, retired after running a Toronto plumbing company which he has passed to a son. Back when George still ran the place he came to Hamilton and put pipes in the city’s tallest building – Century 21.

If you were to judge George by his appearance you might be tempted to say he is solemn.

You would be wrong.

He is quick-witted. Opinionated. Mischievous. A touch ribald.

“How many children do you have George?”

“Four. That I know of.”

His white hair is neatly combed. But for his 80th birthday party, to which 300 guests were invited, he showed up with his hair in a multi-coloured Mohawk. His grandchildren were aghast.

*****

In some ways, Hana Brady is an ordinary girl.

She is popular amongst children growing up in the 1930s in Nove Mesto in Moravia. It is a town of 3,000 in what is then Czechoslovakia. Hana lives with mother Marketa, father Karel and big brother George above their general store.

Hana is fond of skating and cross-country skiing. She is learning piano. She carts around a doll nearly as large as herself.

She is pretty. With blue eyes and shiny golden hair.
Her dream is to be a teacher.
Something eventually sets Hana apart from other children.
Hana is Jewish.

*****

When George talks of his sister he looks away.

“She was a lively girl,” he says, his accent still thick after 60 years in Canada. “She wasn’t a compromiser. She knew how to fight. She liked to pull my hair.”

*****
The Brady family is close.
Karel plays soccer and is a volunteer firefighter. His fire hat fascinates George and Hana.
Folks come to the general store just to be in Marketa’s company. She speaks Czech, German, English and French.

“Mother was very, very loud and laughed a lot and liked to joke,” recalls George.

The Bradys are not religious. Hana and George are Nove Mesto’s only Jewish children.
*****

Six million Jews died in the Holocaust.

“One and a half million children that died is just a number,” says George. “But it shows what hate can do. Hana is a child that children all over the world can identify with. They think ‘It could have been a child like me.’”

*****

Nazis march into Nove Mesto in March 1939.
The Bradys are given a curfew. They can only shop at certain stores. Visit certain people. They can not go to movies or play sports.

“Nobody cared that we were Jewish until then,” says George.

As Hana starts third grade, Jews are banned from school. The Bradys hire private teachers for Hana and George.

“It was devastating for Hana,” says George. “But we still had a family. A big house. We could play in the garden and the attic.”

*****
In March 1941, Marketa is ordered to report to the Gestapo.

“Mother left very early in the morning by horse and carriage,” says George. “I remember and always feel bad that I somehow didn’t get out of bed. I was half asleep and she was gone.”

Marketa is taken to Ravensbruck, a women’s camp in Germany.
She saves her bread ration. Chews it then forms it into coin-sized hearts and a horseshoe. Rolls it into pearls.

“On the hearts she put toothpaste to give it colour,” says George.

She carves her children’s initials in the charms and sends them to Hana for her 10th birthday.

“I miss you so much, dearest Hanichka,” she writes. “I am kissing you now. Love, Mother.”

In his house in Toronto, George opens two boxes lined with silk.

“This is a family treasure,” he says. “I can only imagine how she felt when she was making it.”

In one box lie five hearts and a horseshoe. In the other, a necklace.

Some bear the impression of Marketa’s fingers.

*****
Marketa is transported to Auschwitz on Oct. 6, 1942.
Hana sends a postcard.
“Stay healthy and don’t worry,” she writes. “Kisses, your Hana.”

The postcard is returned to Hana. She has written eight lines. The Nazis allow six.

Her mother would not have received the card anyway.

“My mother was dead by then,” says George.

Marketa is killed 23 days after arriving at Auschwitz.

*****
George holds a cloth star.

“Father got the order that we had to wear a yellow star,” he says. That was the fall 1941 and there are strict rules about the star. It is to be carefully cut out and pinned to the clothes of every Jew in Nove Mesto.

“A man who wasn’t even from our town refused to cut it out properly,” recalls George. “So the Gestapo took all five Jewish men.”

One is George and Hana’s father.

On Nov. 23, 1941, Karel and George exchange goodbyes.

“It’s not much what you say,” George says. “It’s too emotional.”

Karel writes to George from a Gestapo prison.

“It said I am the older one and I should somehow watch over Hana.”
June 11, 1942, Karel arrives in Auschwitz. A month later he is killed.

*****
Uncle Ludvik, who is Christian, takes Hana and George to live with him and Aunt Hedda, Karel’s sister. Hana brings her suitcase.

“He was a brave man,” George says.
Every day, Hana and George return to their own home to have lunch with their governess. It is a way to feel connected to their old life, but there is another motive.

Karel had shown George where he hid photos and documents under the shingles. Each day George puts a few in his pocket and sneaks them to his aunt and uncle’s house.

*****
May 14, 1942.
Hana and George are ordered to report to the Nazis.
Hana packs her suitcase. Inside is a waterproof sleeping bag made by Hedda. There are warm clothes. Salami and sugar. There is no room for toys.
A horse and buggy take them to Trebic, 50 kilometres away. They join 600 other Jews in a warehouse, sleeping on floor mats. On their third night, George finds a cookie and puts a candle on it. He wishes his sister happy birthday.

She is 11.

*****
The children move to Terezin, a Czech village converted to a concentration camp. It will be their home for two years.

Hana takes secret art lessons from a famous painter who encourages her to draw pictures of what she wishes life was like. Hana draws a park with flowers and trees.
*****

After a few months Hana and George are able to visit each other.
On Fridays, each prisoner is given a scone. Hana gives hers to George.
“She felt I needed more food than she did.”

George is learning to be a plumber at Terezin.

Hana and George talk of their parents. “We were hoping they would show up,” says George. “You always have to feel hopeful. Otherwise you give up.”

*****

In September 1944 the Nazis are losing the war. They step up their effort to eliminate Jews and George learns he is going to Auschwitz.

“We just thought we were going to a labour camp,” he says.

After he leaves, Hana looks forward to going to Auschwitz too. When her name is posted for transport, she is happy.
Hana arrives, suitcase in hand, at Auschwitz on Oct. 23, 1944.
*****
When you get off the train at Auschwitz, a Nazi is waiting.
If he points right, you go to the work camp. If he points left, you go to the gas chamber.
George is sent right and is put to work as a plumber.
For months after the war, George does not know Hana’s fate.

“As she was only 13, I figured she didn’t make it,” he says. “Deep down, I knew that she was dead. But you hold out some hope.”

One day in Prague, George bumps into a girl from Terezin.

“She told me Hana went straight to the gas chamber.”

*****
There is a woman in Tokyo named Fumiko Ishioka.

She is asked to teach Japan’s children about the Holocaust. The Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Centre is created in 1998 and Fumiko sets out on her mission with a dozen school children who name themselves Small Wings.

Fumiko and Small Wings want to show students something they can understand. So Fumiko writes letters to museums and survivors around the world asking to borrow a child’s suitcase.

They are turned down.

Fumiko goes to the Auschwitz Museum in Poland and talks her way into a five minute meeting with the assistant director.

In 2000 a suitcase from the museum arrives at her centre in Japan.

“The biggest miracle for me is that of all the suitcases, I was given Hana’s,” says Fumiko. “I feel like it’s a gift from Hana.”

*****
Hana’s name is spelled the German way on the suitcase: two ‘n’s.

Fumiko and the children want to know more about her. Eventually, the Auschwitz museum finds a list showing Hana came from Terezin. Fumiko writes a letter to the Terezin Ghetto Museum. They send her copies of Hana’s drawings.

Hana is becoming real.
*****
Fumiko goes to Terezin.
She convinces a woman at the museum to help in her quest for information about Hana Brady.
They search a list of 90,000 prisoners and find her name. There is a check mark beside it, and all other names on the page. Except for one.
The check means Hana died.
The only prisoner spared is listed right above her: George Brady.

*****
The woman at Terezin searches records for George Brady. She finds the names of his bunkmates. By chance, she knows one. A survivor.

They track him down. He is an art historian in Prague. He not only remembers George, they are still friends. He tells Fumiko that George lives in Toronto.

Back in Tokyo, Fumiko and the Small Wings write George a letter.

*****
“It was the biggest surprise,” George recalls simply.

He sends a package to Japan. It contains a photo of his sister.
Fumiko and the Small Wings see Hana for the first time.

*****
The suitcase brought Hana’s memory to life.
Yet, the suitcase is not real.
It is learned by Fumiko and George that Hana’s original suitcase was destroyed in a 1984 fire set at a warehouse by neo-Nazis. The suitcase sent to Tokyo is a replica, but the Auschwitz museum forgot to say so.
Rather than being bitter about the mistake, Fumiko and George take it as a testament to Hana’s perseverance.

Nothing can stop her from being a teacher.
*****

Hana’s suitcase continues to visit Japanese schools.
Fumiko, George and George’s daughter, Lara Hana, have visited schools around the world.
In South Africa children were amazed there can be hatred between white people. At Canadian Forces Base Borden, just west of Barrie, a child with a parent in Afghanistan asked how George felt saying goodbye to his parents.

CBC journalist Karen Levine turned Hana’s story into a radio documentary. Then an award-winning children’s book, Hana’s Suitcase, which has been translated into 40 languages and inspired several plays.

The book also begat a brilliant docu-drama called Inside Hana’s Suitcase by Canadian filmmaker Larry Weinstein. On Oct. 4 and 5, 2,000 Hamilton and Halton students from grades 5 to 12 will watch a screening of it at Hamilton Place. They will continue to learn about Hana in their classrooms.

On the evening of Oct. 4, the public is invited to see the movie. Fumiko Ishioka and George and Lara Hana Brady will be there to answer questions. The event will be hosted by Hamilton Spectator publisher Dana Robbins and presented by Today’s Family and The Hamilton Jewish Federation.

*****
“It’s the story of this one ordinary little girl who is just like them,” says Fumiko. “The children are fascinated to know how Hana wanted to be a teacher and never gave up hope and loved her big brother. The way she tried to live on. And although she’s not here with us anymore, the kids are fascinated that her story survived. It is about the power of survival. They see love in this story. They see hope in this story.”

Susan Clairmont's commentary appears regularly in the Spectator. Sclairmont@thespec.com
905-526-3539

INSIDE HANA’S SUITCASE

What: A docu-drama by filmmaker Larry Weinstein about Hana Brady who was 13 when she died at Auschwitz.
When: Oct. 4, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Hamilton Place
Tickets: $20. Call Today’s Family at 905-574-9344 X101 or e-mail info@todaysfamily.ca
This article is for personal use only courtesy of TheSpec.com - a division of Metroland Media Group Ltd.

2009-11-05

Inside Hana's Suitcase, National Post, Nov. 5, 2009

National Post · Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009
By Barry Hertz

How do you make a film about the Holocaust? I’m not talking about the Second World War — which has been depicted through innumerable film genres — but specifically the genocide against the Jewish people. It’s a near-impossible assignment to take on: One false move and you end up in the sickeningly saccharine territory staked out by the likes of Jakob the Liar and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. To make an emotionally complex yet respectful picture about the Holocaust takes skill, patience and more than a little bit of chutzpah. Remarkably, Larry Weinstein manages to combine all these elements with his feature-length directorial debut, Inside Hana’s Suitcase.

Originally screened at this spring’s Hot Docs festival in Toronto, Weinstein’s assured and slick quasi-documentary crosses borders, languages and time to tell the story of a young Czech girl and her death at the hands of the Nazis. The film opens in modern-day Tokyo as Fumiko Ishioka, the director of the city’s Holocaust Education Centre, receives a weathered suitcase from Auschwitz bearing the name of Hana Brady. There are a few haunting, key clues written on the piece of luggage, including “waisenkind,” the German word for orphan.

Enlisting her young Japanese students, who know next to nothing about the Holocaust, Fumiko delves deep into Hana’s history, determined to find out how the girl died.

Fumiko’s own journey leads her to Toronto, where Hana’s older brother, George Brady, now lives. As the two strangers get to know each other, and George relives his painful memories, the film becomes part history lesson, part intense family drama. When George travels to Tokyo to teach Fumiko’s students about his sister, it’s impossible not to become engulfed with emotions as the aged grandfather, who rarely spoke of the war before, describes what seems to be another life.

Based on the best-selling investigative book by Karen Levine, Weinstein’s film eschews a traditional narrator, instead relying on the voices of Toronto and Japanese students to explain how one piece of battered luggage ended up changing the lives of so many. The narration tactic works wonders as various schoolchildren get the chance to both propel the story and explain how Hana’s short life affected their own. Weinstein’s expert directorial pacing and skillful editing also help the documentary roll along at a brisk, almost thrilling pace.

The film is not without the occasional misstep, though. By peppering the feature with dramatic reenactments of Hana’s life, Weinstein often loses the heart of the story — the modern-day students and their reactions to the horrors of the Holocaust. Although Weinstein, the noted Canadian producer of such films as Blindness and The Saddest Music in the World, tries to blend the fictional sequences in as seamlessly as possible, the trick is more often jarring than not. The interludes, shot in a clichéd sepia-toned hue, simply never measure up to the authenticity of the film’s candid, real-life interviews.

Still, in terms of Holocaust films, Weinstein’s is just as powerful as Schindler’s List or Tim Blake Nelson’s underrated feature The Grey Zone. Inside Hana’s Suitcase is not an easy film to watch, but it is an important one.

National Post
bhertz@nationalpost.com

.

2009-04-29

New film adds hope to Hana's suitcase, The Star, Apr 29, 2009

The Star
April 29, 2009
Martin Knelman

`I always talk too much, but I can tell you stories," George Brady explained yesterday while chatting about Inside Hana's Suitcase: Larry Weinstein's wonderfully resonant, bittersweet film, which will have its world premiere tomorrow at the Winter Garden Theatre on opening night of Hot Docs.

Brady is the 81-year-old surviving brother of the young Holocaust victim whose memory has been kept alive by the tale of her suitcase. This soft-spoken grandfather, a retired plumber, can indeed tell stories, although he pretty much kept them to himself for more than half a century. Now his understated charm and decency light up the screen.

The story of Hana's suitcase has been told in so many forms and has become familiar to so many people that the question has to be asked. Was it really necessary for Weinstein to make the feature film?

The answer, it turns out, is a resounding yes. Inside Hana's Suitcase gives the material such a complex, creative, inventive and emotionally potent spin that, from one moment to the next, the movie holds you with what feels like a series of fresh revelations.

Whether you've encountered this story before, on radio or TV, in Karen Levine's bestselling book or the play based on it, this new film is un-missable. That is partly because of Brady, who quietly projects star power.

"I am a logical person, but this story defies logic," Brady explained while he and Weinstein were interviewed at the downtown office of Rhombus Media.

For years he said little about his horrific past, even to his children. After enjoying a very happy and secure childhood growing up in a loving family in Nové Mesto, a town in what was then Czechoslovakia, he watched his parents being arrested and taken away after the Nazi invasion, never to be seen again.

He and his younger sister, Hana, were sent to Theresienstadt (a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia), but separated when he was sent to Auschwitz. He survived the Nazi death camp, but Hana, who was sent there a few months later, did not.

After returning to their hometown, George eventually moved to Toronto, because his grandfather's brother lived here. For decades, he rarely spoke about the Nazi horrors he witnessed.

"I couldn't get away from my terrible memories, but I didn't want to inflict them on my family."

But then something miraculous happened. He got a letter from Fumiko Ishioka, who runs a Holocaust education centre in Tokyo. She and her students seemed to have received the suitcase that Hana left when she died in Auschwitz.

Thus began an astonishing dialogue between Hana's brother and a group of children in Tokyo (Ishioka's students) who felt an intense bond with Hana. Brady and his daughter flew to Tokyo to meet them.

Ishioka and those kids play a major role in Weinstein's movie, along with other children in Toronto and the Czech Republic.

"To me it was clear that the strongest possible film would be a hybrid," says Weinstein, who has previously been known for documentaries about music.

"People thought it was odd I would suddenly be making a movie on this subject, and that made it hard to raise the money. But this is not like other Holocaust films. It is narrated by idealistic children, and it's all about hope and tolerance."

What he has produced is far from a conventional talking-heads doc. It weaves together many elements: animation, magic realism, dramatic recreation and those irresistible child narrators.

Ironically, it turned out that the suitcase that caused a stir in Tokyo was not the original but a replica. The real suitcase, on loan from the Auschwitz Museum, had been destroyed by neo-Nazi hooligans in Birmingham, England. That act of vandalism gives this story a dark postscript. Yet despite the horrors it depicts, Inside Hana's Suitcase is a richly rewarding experience.

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2009-04-28

2008-04-18

Chicago Jewish News, Apil 18, 2008

'Suitcase' full of sorrow, hope: Play for youth tells unusual Holocaust tale

By Pauline Dubkin Yearwood (04/18/2008)

Just when it seems there are no more new Holocaust stories to be told, one crops up.

That was the case with "Hana's Suitcase," a 2002 best-selling children's book by reporter Karen Levine. It told the intertwined true stories of Hana Brady, a young Jewish girl who perished at Auschwitz; her brother George, who survived; and a group of Japanese children who became enmeshed in Hana's story by coincidence when a mysterious suitcase turned up in an exhibit at the Tokyo Holocaust Center.

The suitcase had Hana Brady's name on it, but no other clues as to who she was or why her suitcase was sent to the center as a relic of the Holocaust. Led by their teacher, Fumiko Ishioka, the students began researching Hana's life and eventually found her surviving family members living in Canada. Piece by piece, they recreated Hana's tragic story. That story was originally the subject of a radio documentary in Canada, then was adapted for Levine's book, which received many awards and was translated and published around the world.

Now Chicago-area children and their parents will be able to explore Hana's story when Chicago Children's Theatre presents "Hana's Suitcase," a play based on the book and adapted for the stage by Emil Sher. It opens today, April 11 and runs through May 11 at the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs Storefront Theater in downtown Chicago. The organization Facing History and Ourselves has created study guides to go along with the production.

Directing the play is Sean Graney, one of the city's hottest directors. He's the founder and artistic director of The Hypocrites, an innovative local troupe, and has been at the helm of plays at Court Theatre and Steppenwolf, among others. Last summer he directed the popular production of "Honus and Me" for Chicago Children's Theatre.

When he took that job, Graney says, it was "sort of a shock to a lot of people that I would do children's theater." He accepted that assignment, as well as the current one, for a number of reasons.

"I really believe in the power of theater. I feel I've always kind of made children's theater for adults," he said in a recent phone conversation. "For me it doesn't matter if you're doing children's theater or adult theater, it's all about your relationship with the play."

In the case of "Hana's Suitcase," he says, "I loved the story so much. I found it very interesting to take this one culture that is not our culture, Japanese children trying to figure out about the Jewish culture in Czechoslovakia and about the Holocaust. That desire to connect through time, through nations, is such an interesting story. I ended up really falling in love with the script."

Contrary to expectations, he says, "It's a story of hope, not a story of despair. It shows not only the hope of these Japanese children trying to figure out what happened but their desire to stay connected to the world, to do their best to spread understanding and love to the world."

In telling the parallel story of Hana and her family, the play is inspiring in showing "the Jewish people who lived through the Holocaust or those who didn't make it. They all display such bravery, such hope."

Although the play is about a young girl who perished, "it doesn't present absolute despair and misery or
violence and cruelty," Graney says. "People survived, they faced the ruelty with love and hope, with family. Those things really held people together.

It's about the hope, the fact that these people were such strong-willed people to face this with such bravery and hope."
Beyond that, the story is an ntriguing mystery. "The Japanese children become sort of fixated on this
suitcase as a symbol, a gateway to what happened and to the girl who owned the suitcase. They want to
find out as much as they can about her, and they do," he says.

While the play is geared to children 10 and older, Graney says adults should enjoy it too. "The story is unique. I don't think the world has ever seen a story like this one," he says. What gives it such a twist, even
for those familiar with the Holocaust, is "to see the complete discovery of the Holocaust through the eyes of the Japanese children. It's less a part of their culture than it is of ours. That should be enough to intrigue adults as well as children."

When he directs for children especially, Graney says, "I always try to make the most interesting, engaging picture, to move from picture to picture to try to tell the story as clear as the play wants it to be.

Adults have a larger theatrical vocabulary. They've seen more plays.

In children's theater, if you're going to use a theatrical convention, if (children) are not accustomed to it from movies you have to set it up through a visual vocabulary or storytelling." To that end, projections
of Hana's drawings and of authentic documents and photos of Hana and her brother help bring the story to life.

In other ways, Graney says, "children are so much more forgiving.

Adults would analyze the psychology of why somebody did something. Children accept it, like, oh, he's really mad right now, I don't have to know why."

Working in children's theater is usually a highly positive experience, he adds. "Everybody has such high hopes for theater. People are really positive even when dealing with such heavy material."

That, Graney says, is the case with "Hana's Suitcase." "There is depressing material. It starts with the Japanese children desiring to connect and ends with them having to understand that this girl did not live through the Holocaust. Hana's journey is depressing and heartbreaking, but the journey of the Japanese children desiring to understand is a hopeful positive thing. It's so optimistic. It's not just about despair."

"Hana's Suitcase" runs from Friday, April 11 through Sunday, March 11 at the Department of Cultural Affairs Storefront Theater, 66 E.
Randolph, Chicago. For tickets, at $35 for adults, $20 for youths under 16, call (312) 742-TIXS (8497) or visit http://www.chicagochildrenstheatre.org/.

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2008-04-17

The Times (NWI), April 17, 2008

'Hana's Suitcase' teaches touching lessons of Holocaust

BY LOISE MARIE VALADEZ

　In keeping with its mission to entertain and educate, Chicago Children's Theatre is staging the poignant and historical "Hana's Suitcase." The play, which tells the story of Czech youngster Hana Brady and her plight at Auschwitz, runs through May 11 at Storefront Theater in Chicago.

　It may seem unusual that the subject of a children's theatrical production is the Holocaust, but "Hana's Suitcase" deals with the atrocity in a unique and sensitive way. "This is a sweet, honest story about the need to make a connection," said Sean Graney, the show's director. Graney, artistic associate at Chicago Children's Theatre, previously directed the organization's hit "Honus and Me" last summer. He said he's enjoying working with the talented 11-member cast on this unique production geared toward families.

Through the play, audiences are introduced to Hana and her brother George via a Japanese teacher and her students who explore Hana's life. It's based on a true story of the teacher, who runs Tokyo's Holocaust Education Resource Center, and her quest to teach her students about Hana and the events surrounding the Holocaust.

When a suitcase stamped with Hana's name is delivered to the center one day, the journey to get to know the girl begins. The play, adapted by Emil Sher, is derived from the best-selling book "Hana's Suitcase" by Karen Levine. Children's Theatre's artistic director Jacqueline Russell decided to present the play in April, in conjunction with National Holocaust Month.

For Graney, the script was quite compelling. "I thought the structure was very interesting and I liked the story. It's not your typical Holocaust play," Graney said, adding it's filled with educational aspects that encourage children to learn more about the history of the Holocaust. "It encourages dialog," he said. Graney hopes children and their families will leave with a deeper understanding of the grim, terrifying time period and the real people surrounding it. "It was challenging and exciting to work on this play," Graney said. The challenges, he said, came about because he had to deal with such a horrific subject matter but also subdue it to make it appropriate for young theatergoers. "It's a serious subject but there are also comedic moments which don't underscore the seriousness," the director said. Given the "gruesome" events of the Holocaust, though, it was something that he "didn't want to shy away from," he said. "So we have implied violence, which is done offstage and we deal with it also through light projections and sound," Graney said.

The director, who has worked with Chicago Children's Theatre for the past two years, said it's been a joy to present theatrical works to young audiences. "It's been a great experience for me. The (family) audiences are so interesting and accepting," he said. Introducing youngsters to the theater, he said, is important because it adds another dimension to their lives. "Encouraging children to go to the theater at a young age is very healthy," he said. Graney admires artistic director Russell's mission that Chicago Children's Theatre is dedicated to "creating experiences for the whole family."

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2008-04-15

Chicago Tribune, April 15, 2008

THEATER REVIEW

Children's Theatre handles Holocaust with striking honesty

By Chris Jones

April 15, 2008

Somewhere in the middle of the intensely emotional drama "Hana's Suitcase," a Japanese school teacher encounters an official from a Holocaust museum. "What," the traveling teacher asks, "do you tell the children?"
It's a question likely to be in your mind before taking young ones to the latest production of the Chicago Children's Theatre. Titled "Hana's Suitcase" and based on events first chronicled by Canadian writer Karen Levine and adapted for the stage by Emil Sher, this show begins with the arrival of a child's suitcase from Poland at the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Center. Although they know little more than the owner's name, Hana Brady, the Japanese teacher and her students set out on a global research quest to discover
all they can about the life and fate of this almost-anonymous child who once owned the luggage.

Before they start a journey that will take them to Auschwitz and into the face of a child's death, the teacher wisely warns her charges that the world's stories fall into several categories: the happy, the sad and the horrible.

Hana's fate is in the last category. But her story is not horrible because it contains the life of an exuberant, innocent child, lived to the fullest. We slowly rediscover Hana through the eyes of the young people of a succeeding generation. The discovery, then, is not so much of her fate which we and the Japanese explorers suspect from the start but of the richness of her emblematic life and the agony of its interruption.

Director Sean Graney has the tough job of combining an accessible style for young people with such an intense theme. He mostly succeeds. Although staged on an almost empty stage with projections of somber archive material, the show bursts with life and vitality.

Some early sections are cheapened by being rushed, and the piece lamentably downplays a promised coda wherein the teacher explores with her students how to process their sudden discovery of the world's most heinous horrors. We could have all used that.

But although this show needs to feel more secure about itself, the story is nonetheless told in strikingly honest fashion. Several strong performances from the likes of Dev Kennedy (Hana's father), Mia Park (the teacher) and Greta Honold (Hana) ooze truth and quiet dignity.

Like many sophisticated works of children's theater, this fine piece suggests to the targeted young people that the world's children owe one another solidarity and thus a collective commitment to change.

And that museum official's answer? "I tell them everything. Eventually." Parents must decide for themselves, of course, when eventually has arrived. But if this feels like the moment for a telling of this particular 20th Century atrocity, this is a safe, inspiring showthat also glorifies the memory of the children who didn't even get their names on a valise.

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2008-04-13

Chicago Critic, April 13, 2008

Inspirational mystery unfolds the life of a Jewish child during the Holocaust

By Tom Williams 　

Under Sean Graney’s energetic direction, Hana’s Suitcase is the true story of what happened to one little girl among the 1,500,000 Jewish children killed in the Holocaust. This inspirational story spans cultures, continents and generations. It is designed to put a face on a monumental tragedy that all the world’s children need to know about. Chicago Children’s Theatre, with help from Facing History And Ourselves, have produced a compelling story that children 10 years old and up will be able to understand. Graney and adapter Emil Sher have walked that fine line between presenting too much upsetting details and withholding the truth about what happened to Jewish children in Eastern Europe during World War II. The following events are true:

In March 2000, a mysterious suitcase arrived at the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource center from Poland, bearing the name “Hana Brady.” Japanese students: the precious 11 year old Akira (Allan Aquino) and the wise beyond her years, Maiko (Stephanie Kim) are intrigued about learning what happened to Hana Brady (Greta Honold). Their teacher, Fumiko (Mia Park) is also determined to learn more. Over the next weeks, she travels to the Eastern Europe to solve the mystery of Hana Brady. Who was she? Is she alive? What happened to her? The play is told through the eyes of the Japanese children. It offers an insightfully fresh look at the Holocaust. We see how Hana, her brother George (Levi Holloway), and their family lived in a resort town in Moravia near the Polish border. We see how Hana and George move from innocence toward adulthood as the German’s invade their country. We learn that progressively terrible things happened to the Brady’s simply because they are Jewish. The Japanese children, especially Akira, want to know all the details about the Brady family. Graney uses fast paced scenes to depict the cruelty of deportation to the camps with enough realism to be effective. The children will understand what is happening.

We see that Hana attended art classes at the Terezin camp under the direction of famed instructor Friedl Dicker-Brandeis. She instructs the children to paint what they wished their world to be. A trunk filled with these drawing was discovered in 1945 including several by Hana Brady.

We see George Brady emerge from a child to a caring adult determined to shelter Hana from trouble. When Fumiko learns the George survived and now lives in Canada, she contacts him to learn about the Brady family. He writes a detailed letter to her explaining what happened. Upon his visit to Tokyo, Akira and Maiko greet him with a poem and a play about his family.

This painful look into the past is educational and inspiring for children. The lessons learned and the hopeful tone for the future brings out the compassion children naturally feel. This tasteful play will reach children 10 and up. Kudos to Chicago Children’s Theatre for selecting this important work. Take your kids to see this show and be ready to answer their questions on the ride home.

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2008-04-11

Chicago Sun Times, April 11, 2008

Historical journey of discovery found in 'Hana's Suitcase'　

By DELIA O'HARA 　

　The Chicago Children's Theatre is covering a wide range of topics and tones with the plays it is mounting for children, as director Sean Graney can tell you. Last season, Graney directed "Honus & Me," a fantasy about a boy who finds the most valuable baseball card in the world, and about the long-gone era it helps him enter. "That was a summer play about baseball, charming and delightful," Graney said.

Now, he is bringing "Hana's Suitcase" to the Storefront Theater of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. Adapted by Emil Sher from Karen Levine's best-selling book, "Hana's Suitcase" tells the story of Tokyo schoolchildren who, with their teacher, uncover the story of Hana Brady, a Czech Jew who disappeared into the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz at 14, leaving only her suitcase, which winds up in Tokyo.

"Hana's Suitcase" is a detective story, a coming-of-age story and a compelling historical saga. Its heroes are Akira and Maiko, two Japanese students who resolve to follow Hana's story wherever it takes them; their intrepid teacher, Fumiko Ishioka, and the Brady family, including Hana and her brother, George, who play major roles in the second act, making the most of their lives even as they deteriorate into loss and oblivion.

"The play is so intense, it could easily slip into despair," Graney says. "Instead, you get this desire to connect and understand [from the Japanese students]. The way the play deals with [the story], the idea of hope shines through." The Japanese children provide a buffer between the audience and the horrific experiences of Hana and George in this fact-based story. Akira and Maiko in a very real sense bring the Bradys alive -- Hana appears as soon as they open her suitcase -- and they channel the feelings of the audience, says Stephanie Kim, who portrayed the student Maiko in the premiere of "Hana's Suitcase" in St. Louis, and will play her again in Chicago.

"The key is that the story is being told through the revelations of these Japanese children," Kim says. "Live theater makes the experience so real that you forget you're watching someone who is not going to make it. In some very odd way, [the theater experience] brings a feeling of humanity, of how frail humans really are."

"Hana's Suitcase" is recommended for children age 10 and up, but 12 and up is probably a more solid range, given the material. With serious stories like "Hana's Suitcase" and Ray Bradbury's "Dandelion Wine" mixed in with romps like "Go Dog Go," families have to look at every CCT production individually. Graney thinks that's a good thing. Whether it's a movie, book, video game or play, parents need to be thoughtful about "what they're bringing their kids to, what questions may be raised by the content, whether it's appropriate for your child," Graney says. "We rely too much on society to tell us what's OK."

But "Hana's Suitcase" is an important play for children who can handle it, according to Graney. "These were normal people, living their lives, and [the Holocaust] just sort of happened to them," he says. "It could in theory happen again. We have to learn how it happened and have a connection to as many people as we can so ... we won't allow anything like this to happen again."

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2007-01-25

Washington University in St.Louis, Record, Jan 25, 2007

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2007-01-18

'Hana's Suitcase' bridges 2 worlds, Jan 18, 2007

January 18, 2007

'Hana's Suitcase' bridges 2 worlds

By CHERYL WITTENAUER

ST. LOUIS (AP) - In September 1944, George Brady forestalled certain death at Auschwitz by convincing "Angel of Death" camp doctor Josef Mengele that he was healthy enough to be of use at a labor camp.

The young Czech Jew's little sister, Hana, however, who arrived a month later at the infamous concentration camp, fared far worse.

Brady couldn't shake the guilt over the ensuing 60 years.

"Somehow I had come to terms with our parents' death, but I felt responsible for Hana," he said while visiting St. Louis where the play, "Hana's Suitcase," is having its American premiere. "It was difficult to cope with that. It still bothered me. I had wanted to bring her home."

If not home, Brady brought Hana closer to heart - and got some healing for himself - in the journey documented in "Hana's Suitcase," playwright Emil Sher's adaptation of the best-selling book of the same name by Karen Levine.

The play is co-produced by Washington University's Edison Theater and Metro Theater Company, which is in discussion with Sher and the publisher to win national touring rights to the play. The play premiered in Toronto last March at the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People.

George and Hana Brady's story unfolds in "Hana's Suitcase" to a group of contemporary Japanese school children, who learn about the girl who had to abandon her bag before being marched to the gas chamber.

The suitcase, marked with Hana Brady's name, birth date and "Waisenkind," German for "orphan," arrived in 1999 at the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Center, a tiny storefront operation, for a children's exhibit. The kids became curious, wanting to know who Hana was, what she put in her suitcase and what happened to her parents.

Fumiko Ishioka, then a staffer and now the Holocaust center's director, embarked on a quest across two continents to uncover Hana's story.

"It was just a simple suitcase, but it showed the story of 6 million Jews being killed," Ishioka said. "I wanted to give it a face. I saw it as a symbol of life. It illustrated not only what happened to this one little girl, but what life she had before, what family she had."

The book and the play alternate between George and Hana's world in the 1930s and 1940s, and that of Ishioka and the Japanese children's search for Hana's identity, 60 years later.

"They are separated by time, by culture, by geography," Sher said. "Yet (Ishioka) worked so relentlessly to bridge it."

Ishioka learned that Hana had come to Auschwitz from Theresienstadt, a walled, guarded prison town for Jews in Czechoslovakia whose adult inmates ran a secret art school for the children. She later uncovered five drawings by Hana at the Jewish Museum in Prague.

She traveled to the camp's museum, where she found Hana's name on a list of tens of thousands of Jewish detainees.

Above Hana's name was that of George, and a mark indicating he had survived. Ishioka then went to the Jewish Museum in Prague, which tracked down George Brady's labor camp bunkmate. He provided Brady's current address in Toronto.

Ishioka recalled that when she wrote George Brady in 2000, she wasn't sure how he would accept a stranger's query about his beloved little sister.

"I was quite nervous," she said. "I wasn't sure he would write back."

Brady, now 79, said when he received the "big fat envelope from Japan" that held Ishioka's letter and drawings from Japanese school children, he called his wife and daughter over. "I said, 'Look what's going on,"' he recalled. "It made me feel good. It was definitely healing."

Since Brady and Ishioka met in January 2001, they have told their story throughout the United States, Canada and Israel.

Next month, they'll be in Mexico.

The story first appeared in a Jewish newspaper in Canada, then it aired on the CBC. It later was told in the book, which has been translated into 35 languages. The play followed. A Canadian documentary is in the works.

Brady said his younger sister had dreamed of becoming a teacher, and in a real way, she accomplished that.

"She's teaching kids all over the world respect for each other, tolerance," he said. "Out of the tragedy comes something very positive."

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Associated Press, Jan 18, 2007

'Hana's Suitcase' has American premiere

The story of a suitcase of young Holocaust victim, Japanese researcher and victim's brother

In September 1944, George Brady forestalled certain death at Auschwitz by convincing "Angel of Death" camp doctor Josef Mengele that he was healthy enough to be of use at a labor camp. The young Czech Jew's little sister, Hana, however, who arrived a month later at the infamous concentration camp, fared far worse.
　
Brady couldn't shake the guilt over the ensuing 60 years.
"Somehow I had come to terms with our parents' death, but I felt responsible for Hana," he said while visiting St. Louis where the play, "Hana's Suitcase," is having its American premiere. "It was difficult to cope with that. It still bothered me. I had wanted to bring her home."

If not home, Brady brought Hana closer to heart - and got some healing for himself - in the journey documented in "Hana's Suitcase," playwright Emil Sher's adaptation of the best-selling book of the same name by Karen Levine.

Looking for Hana

George and Hana Brady's story unfolds in "Hana's Suitcase" to a group of contemporary Japanese school children, who learn about the girl who had to abandon her bag before being marched to the gas chamber.
　
The suitcase, marked with Hana Brady's name, birth date and "Waisenkind," German for "orphan," arrived in 1999 at the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Center, a tiny storefront operation, for a children's exhibit.
The kids became curious, wanting to know who Hana was, what she put in her suitcase and what happened to her parents. Fumiko Ishioka, then a staffer and now the Holocaust center's director, embarked on a quest across two continents to uncover Hana's story.
　
"It was just a simple suitcase, but it showed the story of six million Jews being killed," Ishioka said. "I wanted to give it a face. I saw it as a symbol of life. It illustrated not only what happened to this one little girl, but what life she had before, what family she had."
The book and the play alternate between George and Hana's world in the 1930s and 1940s, and that of Ishioka and the Japanese children's search for Hana's identity, 60 years later.
"They are separated by time, by culture, by geography," Sher said. "Yet (Ishioka) worked so relentlessly to bridge it."
Ishioka learned that Hana had come to Auschwitz from Theresienstadt, a walled, guarded prison town for Jews in Czechoslovakia whose adult inmates ran a secret art school for the children. She later uncovered five drawings by Hana at the Jewish Museum in Prague.
　
She traveled to the camp's museum, where she found Hana's name on a list of tens of thousands of Jewish detainees. Above Hana's name was that of George, and a mark indicating he had survived. Ishioka then went to the Jewish Museum in Prague, which tracked down George Brady's labor camp bunkmate. He provided Brady's current address in Toronto.
Ishioka recalled that when she wrote George Brady in 2000, she wasn't sure how he would accept a stranger's query about his beloved little sister.
"I was quite nervous," she said. "I wasn't sure he would write back."

Fulfilling her dream

Brady, now 79, said when he received the "big fat envelope from Japan" that held Ishioka's letter and drawings from Japanese school children, he called his wife and daughter over. "I said, 'Look what's going on,'" he recalled. "It made me feel good. It was definitely healing."
　
Since Brady and Ishioka met in January 2001, they have told their story throughout the United States, Canada and Israel. Next month, they'll be in Mexico.
　
The story story first appeared in a Jewish newspaper in Canada, then it aired on the CBC. It later was told in the book, which has been translated into 35 languages. The play followed. A Canadian documentary is in the works.
　
Brady said his younger sister had dreamed of becoming a teacher, and in a real way, she accomplished that.
　
"She's teaching kids all over the world respect for each other, tolerance," he said. "Out of the tragedy comes something very positive."

2006-12-07

Washington University in St.Louis, Record, Dec 7, 2006

2006-11-16

Canadian Jewish News, Nov 16, 2006

Hana’s Suitcase receives Yad Vashem Award
　
By JENNY HAZAN
Canadian Jewish News
November 16, 2006
　
JERUSALEM — George Brady never imagined he would accept an award for children’s Holocaust literature at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. But the Czechoslovakian-born survivor of Auschwitz, who moved to Toronto in 1951, did just that on Oct. 30.
　
Along with his 22-year-old daughter, Lara Hana, and Tokyo-based teacher Fumiko Ishioka, Brady accepted the 2006 Yad Vashem Award on behalf of first-time Canadian author Karen Levine for Hana’s Suitcase.
　
The 2002 book was selected from among 10 children’s books, which, other than Hana’s Suitcase, were written originally in Hebrew by Israeli authors.
　
Hana’s Suitcase is the story of Brady’s younger sister, Hana, who, in 1942 at the age of 10, was killed at Auschwitz and the Japanese educator who told her story to the world. “Never in my wildest imagination did I ever expect that this would happen,” says Brady, a plumber in Toronto for more than 40 years. “Not just these awards, but this whole story – it’s like a dream.”
　
The award is the culmination of a story that began when Hana was murdered. The only thing the little girl left behind was a suitcase, on which was written her name, her birth date and the German word waisenkind, which means orphan.
　
The mysterious suitcase found its way into the hands of Japanese school teacher Fumiko Ishioka, co-ordinator of the now-defunct Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Center. Ishioka, who had written letters to several Holocaust museums around the world requesting children’s artifacts for her modest collection at the centre, received the suitcase, along with a baby shoe, a little sock, a baby sweater and a can of Zyklon B gas, from the Auschwitz Museum in Poland in March 2000.
　
“Although there is a Holocaust museum in Hiroshima, Holocaust education is a very new subject in Japan. In the history textbooks, the Holocaust is only described in a few lines. As a result, most students in Japan have never even heard the word ‘Holocaust’ before,” says Ishioka, who estimates that since the centre in Tokyo closed three years ago, she has been able to bring a travelling exhibit about the Holocaust to more than 200 schools in Japan, reaching some 60,000 students.
　
“There are some teachers who have started to realize that there are many important universal lessons to be learned from the Holocaust. But we still have a long way to go,” she says.
　
When the centre was still open, Ishioka says several students who visited were curious to know more about the mysterious Hana Brady.
　
“I remember one girl from high school was furious that the Nazis had classified her as an ‘orphan,’” Ishioka recalls. “I realized I needed to know more about this little girl. In order to really tell the story of the Holocaust, I had to put a face to the suitcase.”
　
Thus began Ishioka’s journey. A trip to the Czech Republic led to Poland and finally, in September 2000, to George Brady in Toronto. Ishioka wrote him a letter, to which he responded immediately, with photos of Hana and himself as children. Ishioka says: “I finally got to see the face I had so long been looking for.”
　
“When Fumiko first contacted me, it was totally unexpected. If the letter had come from Europe, it somehow would have been easier to explain than from Japan, which seemed like this faraway country that had nothing to do with me or this history,” Brady says. “It was lucky for me that she was so persistent.”
　
Ishioka recalls Brady’s response to her request for information about Hana. “I cannot thank George enough for his courage to share such difficult memories with me,” she says. “I will never forget what he first said to me: ‘if it’s for children, then I will share.’”
　
Ishioka and Brady first met in person in Toronto in January 2001. Their meeting inspired CBC journalist Karen Levine to create a prize-winning radio documentary – and to write her first book.
　
Since it was first published in English in April 2002, Hana’s Suitcase has been translated into more than 20 languages (Ishioka herself did the Japanese translation), and published in more than 27 countries. “This is the most exciting thing for me, that this story is being so widely read by so many children from so many different backgrounds,” Ishioka says.
　
When the book was translated into Hebrew – by Schocken Publishing House in Israel – it became eligible for the Yad Vashem award.
　
“Hana’s Suitcase was the natural choice to win this award,” says Haim Gertner, director of teacher training at the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem.
　
“One of the main pillars of the school’s educational philosophy is that when you are teaching about the Holocaust, you have to focus on one individual. You have to save the soul of one person among the pile of bodies. You have to see a face, and be involved with a particular person’s story,” he says.
　
“Not only does Hana’s Suitcase focus on one face, but it follows the process by which one educator came to discover that face. The story is unbelievable. It’s interesting and it’s touching, and it’s very important.
　
“Now that the generation of the survivors is disappearing, we have to give tools to the next generation. This book is an important educational tool that really presents the Holocaust in a touching and sensitive way,” Gertner says
　
Hana’s Suitcase has already expanded to encompass other mediums. A production of Hana’s Suitcase was staged in Toronto, at the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People, this past fall, and the show is set to tour Canada, the United States and perhaps even to England. Documentary filmmakers in the Czech Republic are about to start working on a film about the story.
　
“It’s neat to get acknowledgement – especially so far from home,” says Lara Hana, who just completed her undergraduate degree in anthropology and Near and Middle Eastern civilizations at the University of Toronto. “It’s exciting, but it’s bizarre. It’s completely taken over our lives. We have had to put everything else on hold.”
　
She adds that since the book launch they have struggled to respond to hundreds of letters, e-mails and invitations they have received from around the world. Over the last few years, they have visited many places in Europe, Japan, the United States, Canada and central America.
　
On Nov. 14, the father-and-daughter pair returned to Israel to attend a ceremony to dedicate a memorial plaque to Hana at the Weitzman Institute in Rehovot, for which Brady has been a longtime board member.
　
“I feel that what we are doing now is really important,” says Lara Hana. “In a way it’s gone way beyond Hana, and is really opening up doors – especially for kids who don’t know anything about the Holocaust, since Hana is someone who everyone can identify with.”
　
Brady adds:“It’s very gratifying that my sister’s story has been turned into this huge international educational tool. There is no consolation for her loss, but it’s the best thing that one could imagine – that out of something so bad could come something so good.
　
“I can’t help but think that all of this has somehow been directed by some higher being – that my little sister, the girl who dreamt of becoming a small- town teacher, is now teaching thousands of kids around the world.”
　
Aside from the award for Children’s Holocaust Literature, donated by the Bruno Brandt Foundation, Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies gave out prizes for the outstanding Holocaust education programs to the Mevo’ot Primary School in Be’er Tuvia, the Manor Kabri Middle School at Kibbutz Eilon, and the Rabin School in Givat Ze’ev. English teacher Marsha Goren, of the Ein-Ganim Primary School in Petach Tikvah, received an award for the most outstanding educator. Chana Kupetz, Talia Kirsh and Elior Cohen received awards for writing outstanding high school matriculation papers dealing with issues related to the Holocaust.

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2006-03-16

Canadian Jewish News, March 16, 2006

Children inspiring children

March 16, 2006
Canadian Jewish News

It is hard to believe that it was simply cold, random chance that brought together the lives of a young teacher in Tokyo – Fumiko Ishioka – and a septuagenarian Toronto businessman – George Brady – more than five years ago. Too much dazzling goodness has sparked from the meeting of their deeply humane, steadfast, flint-like natures.

Their story – the poignant circumstances of their meeting and the educational work they have carried on since then – became the powerful, award-winning story called Hana’s Suitcase. As most readers of The CJN know, Hana was Brady’s younger sister. And the suitcase is the one she carried with her to Auschwitz in 1944 on the last journey of her young life.

Some five years ago, Brady’s good friend Marty Goldberg told The CJN about Fumiko’s unprecedented work in Tokyo and of her remarkable meeting with George. CJN staff writer Paul Lungen wrote the story. CBC writer/producer Karen Levine read it in The CJN and was so moved that she produced a radio documentary about Fumiko, George and Hana’s suitcase that aired on the CBC. Levine was then persuaded to convert the documentary into a children’s book that was published by Second Story Press. Hana’s Suitcase was the brilliant result.

The story is an astonishingly resonating tale for youngsters that is currently being read and told around the globe in some 30 different languages. It inter-mingles the details of Hana’s life in Europe with the efforts of Ishioka, the director of the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Centre, and her eight- to 18-year-old students, appropriately called the Small Wings, more than 50 years after Hana lived, to discover Hana’s fate. Those efforts led to their life-altering encounter with Hana’s only surviving immediate family member, her older brother, George.

As of last week, thankfully, Hana’s Suitcase can also be seen on stage. Renowned Canadian playwright Emil Sher has adapted the book into a compelling play. Directed by Allen MacInnis, Hana’s Suitcase is being performed until April 27 in Toronto at the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People.

It is a moving, emotion-evoking production. MacInnis’ direction is tight, well-paced, creatively meshing the children’s present search for Hana’s ultimate fate with the tragedy of the past they eventually discover.

The sets are a clever aid to the telling of the tale that depict Tokyo, the Bradys’ home in Nove Mesto, Czechoslovakia, their prison in Theriesenstadt and their final stop in Auschwitz.Whether as a backdrop for archival film footage or as pieces of torn fragments of a life that slowly find their way together again, the sets combine function with esthetic, stark, minimalist punctuations to the narrative told by the actors.

And the actors execute their roles thoughtfully, sensitively, with striking deference alternatively to the wounding details of Hana’s life and the healing, guileless naivetés of the Small Wings.
The performance last Sunday was a special benefit production whose proceeds were dedicated to the Japanese Holocaust Resource Centre and Ishioka’s ongoing research and promotion of tolerance around the world. Ishioka and Brady were in attendance and addressed the audience both before and after the production.

Ishioka spoke confidently and forthrightly, praising Brady for his courage and his generosity of soul.
“It’s been five years since I came to Canada to meet George. Through learning about the Holocaust, the children in Japan learn about what is important to make the world a better place.
“All the letters, e-mails, poems, projects and songs exchanged among the children have been so inspirational for me. We will share with Japanese children, the e-mails and stories of Canadian children.
“It is a beautiful example of children inspiring children. Hana has given me a great gift.”
Brady spoke softly, almost self-consciously, praising Fumiko for her courage and her generosity of soul.
“Fumiko has visited over 200 schools in Japan sharing with children the story of Hana’s Suitcase. She is responsible for teaching millions of children about tolerance and respect for each other.”
In the play, the character of Fumiko tells her young charges, “When you open hearts, you open minds.”

Five years ago, far away in Tokyo, the Small Wings of Fumiko Ishioka sent their message of “wanting to do good in the world” to George Brady in Toronto who, with tears in his disbelieving eyes, joined with them in their cause. Now Small Wings and Survivor together bring that message to millions more “small wings” around the world, in the prayerful hope that their minds and hearts too will be opened to the important story of Hana’s Suitcase.
　

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2005-11-02

The London Free Press, Nov 2, 2005

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2005-10-28

The London Free Press, Oct 28, 2005

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