Hana's Suitcase

Hana’s suitcase enters more into the narrative in these chapters, functioning as a symbol of the upheaval happening to her. Hana gets to select the suitcase herself, and both times she uses it, she carefully chooses what goes inside. The suitcase represents her ability to control her own life, which will become less and less possible due to the treatment of the Nazis. Levine’s use of the suitcase to represent this eventual loss of control calls back to descriptions of it in earlier chapters, where the children in Tokyo first see it. The suitcase eventually will say Hana’s name in German spelling, “Hanna,” and will have the German word for “orphan” painted on it. Readers already know this will happen, so Hana’s selection of the suitcase when she leaves her house is an ominous moment that builds the rising tension in the text. When the suitcase arrives in Tokyo years after the war and spurs Fumiko’s education efforts, it becomes a tangible reflection of The Importance of Reckoning With the Past.

Levine intentionally includes a chapter showing Uncle Ludvik and Aunt Hedda’s bravery to show an important part of the story of the Holocaust. While harboring Jews was punishable by death, many gentiles went against the rules to keep their family, friends, and neighbors safe. In Germany, the bystander effect made it even more dangerous to do this. In Nove Mesto, there seems to have been less Nazi pressure, and thus it might have been somewhat safer for Ludvik and Hedda to keep their niece and nephew safe. Exhibits at modern-day Holocaust museums often feature the stories of good Samaritans who took Jews in and kept them safe against all odds.