Hana's Suitcase

Fumiko Ishioka is the director of the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Center. After she rented a suitcase from the
Auschwitz Museum to put on display throughout Japan, she was overwhelmed by the curiosity it aroused among both
children and adults. The suitcase had large letters written on it, a name, a birth date and the word "Waisenkind"
(German for "orphan"). After further examination of the source, she finally appointed Hanička "Hana" Brady as the
original owner, and raveled everywhere to try and her find her story, her history and in 2000, found George in Toronto,
Canada.

George Jiri Brady is Hana's brother and a Holocaust survivor of both Theresientadt and Auschwitz during the war. He was the only
survivor from their family.
He and his sister had a safe and comfortable childhood before the War broke out. By the time he was 11, however, Czechoslovakia
had been occupied by the Germans. Jews like the Bradys had to live under a curfew and a set of rules and boundaries. The oldest of
two children, George Brady was born in Prague (the capital of the Czech Republic) on February the 9th, 1928. He grew up in Nove
Mesto, a ski resort in the Moravia region, where his parents, Marketa and Karel, ran a general store.
In March of 1941, their mother Marketa was arrested for sending money to her brother in occupied Belgium. She was deported to the
Women's Concentration Camp Ravensbruck and six months later, Karel was also arrested. They were both eventually deported to
Auschwitz and died separately in 1942.

A few months later, their father was arrested, leaving them alone. Their Christian uncle, Ludvik, took them in and settled the children
into a routine. But, in 1944, they were both sent away to the Ghetto Theresienstadt, and later on to the concentration camp Terezin.
They were kept apart as Hana was too young. Fondly adored by the older girls in the bunks, she slowly grew older and less hopeful.
One day, all the girls were ordered out, and, after briefly meeting George, they were deported to the camp Auschwitz. "A guard pulled
out a girl who had always been embarrassed about her height, and a few of the older ones. Then, they were led down a set of stairs, a
large metal door sealed behind them." Hana was only 13 years old.

George and Hana lived in different barracks. George became an apprentice plumber and managed to keep contact with his sister.
By the fall of 1944, he was sent to the Auschwitz extermination camp, weeks ahead of his sister.
That year, he was only 16, but claimed he was an 18-year-old iron worker. He was rejected but managed to slip into a group that was
sent to to one of the Gleiwitz camps of Auschwitz, where he worked with others in a railway repair shop.

In January, 1945, the Auschwitz camp was evacuated ahead of the soon approaching Soviet army. George Brady joined the other
prisoners on a march.
After four days, they reached the Blechhammer, a different camp. Soviet troops attacked the next morning admist the confusion Mr.
Brady and several others escaped, arriving in an abandoned village where they found civilian clothes.
After the war, he returned to his hometwon and waited for his family to return, but they never did. “I was hoping against all hopes that
somebody would return but nobody did.”
He learned that Hana had been taken to Auschwitz a few weeks after him and sent to the gas chambers.
In writing his death notice, his children said George often talked about how his parents would have been proud to see how well the
family had thrived in Canada.
“This was his vindication; that he won out in the end.”
Hana's Suitcase.
The actual suitcase of Hana was apparently destroyed 20 years ago in a fire in Birmingham, England, while it was on exhibit (possibly
destroyed by Nazi sympathizers). The Auschwitz Museum simply found another suitcase and created an exact replica.
It was George Brady's daughter, Lara Hana Brady, who made the discovery. Looking at an old photograph of the original suitcase, she
noticed a difference between its handles and the ones on the suitcase that everyone thought had belonged to her late aunt.
Seeking an explanation, George Brady went to Poland last month to meet officials of the Auschwitz Museum. They immediately
acknowledged the error and apologized for it. It is the museum's normal practice to notify recipients when a replica is used. In this
instance, neither Brady nor Fukimo Ishioka, the Japanese teacher who first brought the suitcase to public attention five years ago, was
notified.

Hana's Suitcase