Hana's Suitcase

Nonfiction | Book | Middle Grade | Published in 2002

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Chapter 3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-10

Chapters 11-13

Chapters 14-19

Chapters 20-22

Chapter 23-Postscript

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Background

Historical Context: World War II and the Holocaust

World War II was the second international war that involved multiple nations on each continent. Primarily, World War II is attributed to the actions of the Nazi Party in 1930s Germany under the leadership of dictator Adolf Hitler. The Nazi Party held eugenicist beliefs and aimed to exterminate all people not considered part of the so-called Aryan race; the Nazis systemically invaded countries and murdered over 10 million people, including six million Jews. Hana’s Suitcase is a book that describes one family’s experiences in the Holocaust, though many of the details and events included in the text are reflected in other narratives about the Holocaust.

One of the complexities of how the Nazi regime ruled was their commitment to careful and explicit documentation of their activities, followed by their subsequent attempts to destroy all records of the Holocaust completely. Lists, referenced in Hana’s Suitcase, were a prominent way the Nazis tracked who they were moving, where they were moving them to, and who had been killed. When World War II neared its end, Nazis took great pains to burn all possible evidence of their wrongdoing, and many fled to other countries, where they remained hidden for years. Like other Holocaust narratives, Hana’s Suitcase relies on the remaining artifacts from the Holocaust and references the difficulties of finding this information in the present day. Levine joins many other historians and journalists in carefully pulling out information from archives and personal interviews to document a horrific period that, at one point, was close to being erased.

Socio-Historical Context: Japan’s Relationship to the Holocaust

An interesting facet of Hana’s Suitcase is that the discovery of Hana’s story takes place primarily in Japan, a country that has historically had a complicated relationship with the events of the Holocaust. Before World War II, Japan was allied with Germany, though Japan did not support all of Hitler’s actions during the war. The socio-historical implications of this alignment mean that Japan, as a country, is not known for wholeheartedly reckoning with the horrors of the Holocaust. As a result, as described in Hana’s Suitcase, little had been done to publicly educate about the Holocaust in Japan before the 1990s and 2000s. Thus, the story of Hana’s suitcase is a critical part of a modern-day shift in Japan to examine the events of the Holocaust and address the importance of the past.

Many of Levine’s descriptions of Fumiko Ishioka and her Holocaust education work aim to indirectly address the fact that Fumiko is ahead of her time in her dedication to learning about the myriad historical events and impacts of the Holocaust. Fumiko attends conferences in other countries and sparks one of the first touring exhibits about the Holocaust in Japan, “The Holocaust Seen Through Children’s Eyes” (44). One of Levine’s intentions in focusing on Fumiko’s perseverance to share these narratives is to show how countries can look to the past and change their current social contexts. Additionally, Levine highlights how countries that may have a complicated relationship with their history can still find redemption in uncovering aspects of the past that have been buried.

Critical Context: Exploring Children’s Issues

One of the most interesting aspects of Hana’s Suitcase is that it focuses on a child’s life and centers on the ideas of present-day children interested in Hana’s story. In this way, the book functions as an important narrative about childhood and children rather than solely existing as a historical or journalist pursuit. The children in Tokyo who form the group Small Wings are inspired by Hana’s story and produce drawings, writing, and activism campaigns, and their work is featured prominently throughout Hana’s Suitcase. None of the present-day adults in the text act except to support the education of the children in Japan, illustrating how important children are to the novel’s plot. Levine’s historical details about Hana and her present-day narration about children in Japan make this book, which critically examines how children experience their lives and environments, a useful contribution to childhood studies.

Levine also takes great care to make the information in her text clear for younger audiences, centering children once again. Whenever Levine includes information about the more traumatic aspects of the Holocaust, she is careful to give background context and a balanced presentation of events so that the story will not negatively impact a young reader. The thoughtful development of Hana’s story to not scare younger readers makes this an important educational text that middle-grade students can read independently. Thus, Levine makes Hana’s Suitcase an extension of Fumiko Ishioka’s original exhibit, which is designed to be both about children and for children.