Discover more about George & Hana Brady as they experienced the Holocaust years and the Japanese educator Fumiko Ishioka who brought their story to light through Hana's suitcase.

Jasmine Taylor
Photography

Hana and George Brady
The Brady Family
•••

Photo 1: George and Hana seated together in 1942

Photo 2: George with his parents Karel and Marketa in 1929

Photo 3: Brady family in front of the family store

In 1941,

the Brady siblings; Hana and George buried a bottle - writing out their frustrations and fears, along with their hopes and dreams. They intended to collect the bottle together after the war. While they were not able to do so - you might imagine what they shared.

We invite you to learn more as we share our extensive archive of Brady family documents, letters and photographs including rare documents and letters from the war years and lesser known aspects of George's life - his own time in the Terezin ghetto and his involvement with the underground magazine known as Vedem.

We’ve been honoured to share George and Hana’s story as well as Fumiko Ishioka’s journey with the Small Wings group since August 2000. Having spent the last 20 years of his life almost exclusively speaking about his sister, George was thrilled to see  Hana’s wish to be a teacher granted. Despite George’s death in 2019, the Brady family carries on with the work and we appreciate hearing from families and classrooms around the world - especially touched to make connections in these turbulent times.

We're living in difficult times - we hope Hana, George and Fumiko's stories have brought you hope and piqued your interest in history and the power of sharing our stories with each other.

Best wishes from our hearts to yours.

Lara Hana Brady

More About Me
“After everything I went through in my life, I swore that I would never turn my back on people. I’ve realized from personal experience, the worst is when injustice takes place, and the silent majority is the only one accounted for.”
~ George Brady

“After everything I went through in my life, I swore that I would never turn my back on people. I’ve realized from personal experience, the worst is when injustice takes place, and the silent majority is the only one accounted for.”

George brady

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OUR STORY

Our family lived in the small town of Nove Mesto na Morave in Czechoslovakia. George’s mother Marketa was a cheerful woman with a winning personality. Constantly making people laugh, she was a good friend to many people and that included writers and poets. George’s father Karel was very involved with local town life – playing soccer and eventually becoming team captain; as well as acting as a volunteer fireman, the announcer and executive of the sports club, an amateur actor and a supporter of art made by relatively unknown artists.

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More About Me
“After everything I went through in my life, I swore that I would never turn my back on people. I’ve realized from personal experience, the worst is when injustice takes place, and the silent majority is the only one accounted for.”
~ George Brady

ABOUT THE BRADY FAMILY

The Brady Family play an integral role in the Czech town of Nove Mesto Na Morave: running the local general store and participating in community events.

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ABOUT THE BRADY FAMILY

The Brady Family play an integral role in the Czech town of Nove Mesto Na Morave: running the local general store and participating in community events.

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More About Me

THE WAR YEARS

VPRED

The stories, poetry and cartoons in Vpred (let's go forward) were created by the girls of Room 28 in 1943. Each piece is signed by a code name to protect the author had the Nazis discovered the magazine.

VISIT WAR YEARS

VEDEM

Vedem’ (In the Lead) which was a Czech language “magazine” that existed from 1942 to 1944 in Terezin. The magazine was made up of poems, stories, plays, literary reviews, essays and drawings which often described everyday life in the ghetto.

VISIT WAR YEARS

TEREZIN

Built in the late 18th century, Terezin was originally intended as a military fortress and garrison. It served this purpose numerous times but was eventually used by the Nazis as ghetto and prison for the Jews of Czechoslovakia and surrounding countries.

VISIT WAR YEARS

RAVENSBRÜCK

Located in northern Germany, close to the village of Ravensbrück, this Nazi concentration camp was created by SS leader Heinrich Himmler in November of 1938. The camp opened in May 1939 and saw over 130,000 female prisoners of whom only 40,000 survived.

VISIT WAR YEARS

AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU

This notorious camp was the largest of the Nazi concentration camps and was located in occupied Poland, next to the village of Oświęcim.
Of the 1.3 million people sent to Auschwitz, it is estimated that 1.1 million died.

VISIT WAR YEARS

HANA CONNECTS THE WORLD

CANADA

Following the Holocaust and the arrival of Communism in Czechoslovakia, George was keen for a fresh start and found an opportunity so do this in Canada in January 1951. Keen to give back to the country that offered him freedom, George became an active part of the greater community in Toronto and Canada as a whole.

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JAPAN

The arrival of a few artifacts including Hana’s suitcase from the Auschwitz Museum opened a new chapter for the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Centre. The Centre Director, Fumiko Ishioka, along with the student group Small Wings were particularly driven to share world history and unearth the fate of Hana Brady with the few clues provided by her suitcase.

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COLLECTION

With the help of quick hiding, obliging family, friends and a lot of luck, the Brady family was able to save an extensive collection of photos, documents and other items from before, during and after World War II. We are happy to share some of these artifacts and their stories.

VISIT COLLECTION

More About Me

CONTACT

George, Fumiko and Lara have been honoured to share our story with countless people around the world over the last 20 years and we continue to do so in George and Hana's memory. You can write to us just as Fumiko did so many years ago at the same address or contact us by email.

EMAIL: [email protected]

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