The story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. He alone realizes that Hanna is illiterate and may be concealing that fact at the expense of her freedom.
based on novel or book cautionary complex courtroom drama cruel cynical depressing disheartening embarrassed female prisoner frantic germany law student literacy love affair older woman younger man relationship reading aloud reading to someone secret lover shame teenage sexuality tragic trial war crimes west germany women’s prison
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