Not once does Hanna refuse to admit to her crimes and “her willingness to admit things annoyed the other defendants” (Schlink 113). Although Hanna’s willingness to admit to her actions portrayed her as honest, the defendants and witnesses portray Hanna as a cruel SS soldier. The daughter who survived the bombing at the church points out that Hanna “had favourites, always one of the young ones who was weak and delicate” that were ordered to read to her at night before sending them to their death (Schlink 116). The daughter thinks that Hanna did it because she got bored of the girls and were playing around with them, but Michael thought that she did it to hide her secret of being illiterate. Although Michael wanted Hanna to say that “she wanted to make that final month [more] bearable” for the girls, she stayed silent. It is uncertain why Hanna stayed silent, and it begs the question, what is was Hanna’s true intention. Throughout the trial, Hanna is portrayed as a SS soldier who had no choice, but to do her job. Everyone in the court room is silent when Hanna asks the judge, “I…I mean…so what would you have done?” when she asks if she sent the old prisoners to death just to make room …show more content…
The judge tries to have Hanna imprisoned for events that were out of her control. We see Michael struggling to understand Hanna’s choices because he was “simultaneously [trying] to understand Hanna’s crime and to condemn it….But it was impossible to do both.” (Schlink 157). During the Holocaust, the selfishness in humans is the main determinant of their actions. The choice between their own death and the death of the Jewish prisoners is the main focus that rises through the trial. There was nothing that could have led to Hanna choosing differently once she had accepted her job as a camp guard. Even the judge would not have done differently and that is why he stayed