Bernhard Schlink's novel, The Reader, is one of my all favorite novels because it not only deals with law and psychology but it also is a piece of Holocaust literature. The novel follows narrator, Michael Berg, as he retells his past in three epic parts. The novel begins in West Germany in 1958, almost 13 years after WWII. When Michael was a teenager, he had an affair with a 36 year old train conductress named Hanna. Their relationship was mostly sexual but Michael began to grow strong feelings for Hanna. Hanna was very "down to business" with Michael and very closed off about her past. One of her favorite things to do with Michael was to have him read to her after they had made love. There affair lasts several months until one day Hanna disappeared. Part II of the novel opens several years later with Michael beginning law school. As one of his assignments for law school, Michael observes a war crime trial that attempts to interrogate and punish those who committed war crimes in the Holocaust. On trial is a group of middle-aged women who were active SS officers during WWII and helped guard one of the concentration camps. Michael is shocked and surprised to find out that Hanna was amongst those who were accused.
I do not want to spoil what happens for those who wish to read this book and/or watch the movie, but Part III deals with Michael's life after the trial and what has became of him and Hanna. In Part III several questions are raised that have to do with both the legal world and psychology. One of the main questions that are raised is what are the second generation suppose to do with their Nazi past. In an interview, Schlink has said that one of his favorite professors in school had a visible swastika tattoo. How are the children of the perpetrators suppose to deal with the guilt of their parents as the events of the Holocaust become common knowledge in the 1950s and 1960s? And who can we persecute legally for those who were involved with what had happened in the Holocaust? Surely those who committed murders, but weren't those who committed the murders in fact just following the governments orders? Who can we hold responsible for their actions and where the perpetrators just victims themselves? These are all the things that the book deals with. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the Holocaust, history, or international law.
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