The Reader

The villagers can’t confirm or deny that Hanna was the leader, but the claim that Hanna was in charge makes the villagers look better. It makes it seem like they couldn’t have tried to rescue the women in the church because a menacing authority figure (Hanna) was in their way. If the guards were confused, the villagers had a chance to save the women.

Hanna is tired and doesn’t stand when she speaks anymore. The other trial participants are weary too. Michael considers telling the judge that Hanna is illiterate and that her lack of reading and writing skills compromised the integrity of the proceedings. Michael tries to discuss his dilemma with his friends. He also thinks about Hanna’s problem in different contexts and the tension between wanting to prove one’s innocence while maintaining their dignity.

Michael speaks to his father about the situation. Like his father’s students, Michael has to make an appointment. His father senses it has to do with a trial and reminds him of how upset he got when, as a little boy, his mother knew what was best for him. With kids, it’s permissible for adults to enforce their sense of what’s good, but adults have to let adults choose. Adults should have the dignity and freedom to select what they feel is the best path—happiness is irrelevant. However, Michael could try to speak to Hanna and get her to confess her illiteracy. Michael doesn’t know how he could talk to Hanna, and his father, with his back hurting, realizes he can’t help his son.

In June, the court flies to Israel for two weeks for a mix of judicial and recreational activities. Michael thinks the trip is suspicious and spends the break thinking about Hanna. He sees her by the burning church and in the camps with her prisoners and selected readers. He also sees her in her kitchen, the bathtub, and with him.

As a university student, he can’t access many images or books about the Holocaust. The world of the camps is beyond most people’s imagination. Later, as an older adult in the 1980s and 90s, the sundry Holocaust films and books help Michael and other people see what the camps were like.

Michael goes to the nearest concentration camp, the smaller Natzweiler-Struthof. He hitchhikes, and he and the driver discuss how people could murder others in the camps. They often didn’t do so out of hatred but because they were doing their jobs. The driver describes a photo he saw of a mass murder of Jews in Russia. One of the executioners smokes a cigarette and has a cheerful expression. Michael asks if the driver is the executioner, and the driver kicks him out.

As an older adult, Michael returns to Natzweiler-Struthof. It’s closed, and Michael tries to imagine the guards, prisoners, and suffering, but he can’t. He feels like a failure. Across from a restaurant, Michael spots a small house that was once a gas chamber. He doesn’t feel anything, or he doesn’t feel the way he thinks a person should feel after visiting a concentration camp.

As a university student, when Michael first visits the camp, he stays till it closes and then hitches a ride into a village, where he finds a room at an inn. He eats in the dining room, and four card-playing men throw cigarette butts at an older man with a wooden leg. Michael screams at them, but the man smashes the glass table and laughs. The card-playing men begin to laugh at Michael, and he leaves.

At night, Michael listens to the wind. He wonders if he should understand Hanna’s crime or condemn it.

Michael wonders why he doesn’t speak to Hanna or try to get her to admit she can’t read or write. He thinks about how she perceives him—as a reader or a fling— and wonders whether she would have sent him to the gas chamber.

Michael goes to the judge, and they talk about his career path before they part ways. Michael feels numb but likes the indifference—it allows him to live his regular life.

The courtroom is full of university students, schoolchildren, and journalists, so before the verdict, it’s loud. As the noise drops, Michael hears people saying, “Look.” All eyes are on Hanna. Her outfit looks like an SS uniform. The spectators think she’s mocking them, and they yell insults at her. The verdict arrives at the end of June: Hanna gets life in prison, and the other defendants receive a set number of years.