Michael’s failure to stand up for Hanna mirrors the guilt of all ordinary Germans for failure to stand up against the Nazi war machine. Should he reveal her secret, which might mitigate some of the blame for the crimes of which she stands accused? In the end, like so many people facing a difficult moral choice-as Schlink indicts both the reader and his characters-Michael, conflicted and helpless, does nothing, says nothing. Here, Michael faces his own moral dilemma. However, Michael discovers that she is hiding a secret that she considers more shameful than being sentenced for war crimes: Hanna is illiterate. #THEMES OF THE READER BY BERNHARD SCHLINK FULL#He is bewildered when she puts up no defense, refusing to give a handwriting sample that might acquit her, and takes full responsibility for the deaths. She stands accused, among other crimes she committed as an Auschwitz camp guard, of the deaths, in 1945, of 300 Jewish women who were locked inside a church that was firebombed by the allies, following a winter death-march in evacuating Auschwitz. When he arrives at the courtroom, he is appalled to see that one of the women on trial for war crimes is Hanna. In 1966, Michael is a law student, and he is sent to observe a Nazi war crimes trial.
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