Hana's Suitcase

One of the strengths of Levine’s narrative craft is the controlled way she reveals information about Hana and her life. Levine carefully builds the novel’s chronology so that the present-day discovery of information matches the stories from the past; the reader only learns about aspects of Hana’s life in balance with Fumiko’s investigation. While the inclusion of photographs makes it clear that Fumiko will eventually discover more about Hana’s life, Levine intentionally withholds key details about what will happen to Hana in Theresienstadt or after. By keeping this information from the reader, Levine creates suspense and engages the reader in looking for clues about what might happen to Hana and her family. Given the novel’s content, this is an important narrative technique: Readers might already have background knowledge about the Holocaust and might have existing assumptions about what will happen to Hana. The mysterious narrative structure of Hana’s Suitcase makes it a more dynamic read about the Holocaust.

In these chapters, Levine uses her extensive research and interviews to bring readers up close with the people she is writing about. Her descriptions of the Bradys’ life in Nove Mesto are filled with specific details and anecdotes. For example, readers can visualize Hana and George burying their concerns on paper because Levine brings the moment to life with dialogue and specific imagery. Similarly, in the chapters about the children in Tokyo, Levine makes sure to include specific names and personality details. While Levine wasn’t present at any of the events that unfold in the novel, her attention to the details about key figures helps bring the novel’s content to life. One particularly interesting detail is the short excerpt describing Hana and George’s New Year’s game, where the children put a candle in a boat made from a walnut. Levine includes the moment when Hana’s candle “hit[s] the water and [goes] out” (19). This precise narration about Hana’s early experiences is a key foreshadowing of what will happen to her later in the Holocaust. Levine chooses thoughtful moments from the past and present to bring the story to life for readers.

A challenging aspect of how the Holocaust unfolded was that Jews were reticent about leaving their homes. A common belief was that things couldn’t possibly get bad enough to merit leaving the place where one owned property and had established a life. Unfortunately, as in the Bradys’ case, this led to horrible oppression and violence. Levine’s inclusion of details about the Brady family listening to the radio and ignoring Mr. Rott’s advice helps illustrate this common pattern for families. In modern-day Holocaust education, like at the Tokyo center described in the book, historians and educators help people see how the events that led to the Holocaust can be prevented to minimize the likelihood of something so horrific happening again.

While not explored in depth in this section, the principal themes undergird elements of these chapters. This section establishes George and Hana’s closeness, whether they are playing together or conversing about their future. This closeness lays the foundation for the theme of Family Connection Across Time. As Nazi rule impinges on the Jewish residents, George and Hana express their unhappiness and concerns on paper, hinting at Children’s Resilience in the Face of Oppression, which will be explored in greater detail later. Finally, even though the reader does not yet know Hana’s fate or that of her family, exposing the Nazis’ tactics, including the loss of freedoms, as shown in these chapters, speaks to The Importance of Reckoning With the Past.