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The Exhibition on the "Story of Hana’s Suitcase" Was Opened on 3 November 2022

The Permanent Mission of the Czech Republic to the Council of Europe, together with the Permanent Delegation of the State of Israel to the Multilateral Organizations in Paris and the Consulate General of Japan in Strasbourg, opened the exhibition called the "Story of Hana´s Suitcase" on 3 November 2022. 
 

The first speaker was Ambassador Petr Válek, the Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the Council of Europe, who informed the audience on the origins of this exhibition. He thanked for its preparation Mr. Lubomír Šula (and his collaborators) who – being a teacher – realized how little the youngest generation knows about the crime of Holocaust. As such, the exhibition was prepared primarily for school children and its text was, therefore, written as a story. In this context, Ambassador Válek thanked also to Ms. Darragh Paradiso, Consul General of the United States in Strasbourg, who kindly did the proofreading of his English translation.

Ambassador Válek then recalled the popular book "Hana’s Suitcase: The Quest to Solve a Holocaust Mystery" by the Canadian writer Ms. Karen Levine. The book describes how a Japanese teacher and researcher, Ms. Fumiko Ishioka, wanted to explain to her students the crime of Holocaust. For this purpose, she obtained from the State Museum in Auschwitz a suitcase with writing: "Hana Brady, May 16, 1931, orphan". Subsequently she managed, with her Japanese students, to uncover the fate of the owner of the suitcase – Hana Brady. Hana came from a Jewish family from Nové Město na Moravě (New Town in Moravia) where she lived together with her parents and older brother Jiří (George). Her happy childhood ended by the occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia by the Nazi Germany in 1939. Gestapo arrested both of her parents and sent them to the concentration camps. In 1942, she was - together with her brother - deported to Terezín (Theresienstadt) where they managed to survive despite the harsh conditions. George even participated in publication of the children magazine "Vedem". In fall 1944, however, their luck ran out. George was the first to be put on transport to Auschwitz, soon after followed by Hana, who was murdered immediately after her arrival there. George was the only one out of Brady family to survive Holocaust and, after the Communist coup d’état, he escaped from Czechoslovakia to Canada where he successfully started his new life.

In conclusion, Ambassador Válek stated that he wanted to organize this exhibition for the three following reasons. First, he wanted to draw the attention of the diplomatic community in Strasbourg to the International Conference on Terezín Declaration that is taking place in the framework of the Czech Presidency of the EU at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Prague exactly on November 3. The Terezín Declaration was adopted already during the first Czech EU Presidency in 2009 and deals with many different aspects of the Holocaust legacy, e.g., with the fight against antisemitism. Second, he thought it was timely to highlight the fate of children as victims of armed conflict, in particular when we witness every day the suffering of the Ukrainian children as a result of the Russian aggression, including their forceful deportation to the Russian territory. Third, he also had a personal reason of his own, since this is a story from his hometown. He even had the privilege to meet Mr. George Brady once, so the exhibition was the right way to commemorate the tragic fate of the Brady family.

Then followed the statement by Ms. Marija Pejčinović-Burić, the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, who mentioned, inter alia, the activities of this international organization in the field of taking care for the legacy of Holocaust and the fight against antisemitism. As the last speaker took the floor Ambassador Hiroyuki Uchida, Consul General and Permanent Representative of Japan to the Council of Europe, who spoke about the Japanese part of the story of Hana’s suitcase and referred to the message by Ms. Ishioka. She was informed on this event by the Japanese side and was very happy about this. Ambassador Haim Assaraf unfortunately could not attend the opening of the exhibition due to his responsibilities in Paris, nevertheless, the Israeli side was represented by its Honorary Consulate in Strasbourg. The exhibition, which will remain in the seat of the Council of Europe for the next three weeks, raised a vivid interest among local diplomats and officers of this international organization.

 

Hana´s Suitcase

Hana´s Suitcase

Hana´s Suitcase

Hana´s Suitcase

 

The Story of Hana´s Suitcase

The Story of Hana´s Suitcase

The Story of Hana´s Suitcase

The Story of Hana´s Suitcase

 

The Story of Hana´s Suitcase

The Story of Hana´s Suitcase