The Reader (2008)
Burghart Klaußner: Judge
Quotes
-
Young Ilana Mather : [Testifying in court] Each of the guards would choose a certain number of women. Hanna Schmitz chose differently.
Judge : In what way differently?
Young Ilana Mather : She had favourites. Girls, mostly young. We all remarked on it, she gave them food and places to sleep. In the evening, she asked them to join her. We all thought - well, you can imagine what we thought. Then we found out - she was making these women read aloud to her. They were reading to her. At first we thought this guard... this guard is more sensitive... she's more human... she's kinder. Often she chose the weak, the sick, she picked them out, she seemed to be protecting them almost. But then she dispatched them. Is that kinder?
-
Hanna Schmitz : We were guards. Our job was to guard the prisoners. We couldn't just let them escape.
Judge : I see. And if they escaped, then you'd be blamed, you'd be charged.
Hanna Schmitz : No.
Judge : You might even be executed?
Hanna Schmitz : No!
Judge : Well, then?
Hanna Schmitz : If we'd opened the doors, there would have been chaos. How could we have restored order? It happened so fast. It was snowing. The bombs. The flames. There were flames all over the village. Then the screaming began, and got worse and worse. And if they'd all come rushing out, we couldn't just let them escape. We couldn't. We were responsible for them!
-
Judge : Did you not realize - that you were sending these women to their deaths?
Hanna Schmitz : Yes, but they were new arrivals, new women were arriving all the time. So, the old ones had to make room for the new ones.
Judge : I'm not sure you understand.
Hanna Schmitz : We couldn't keep everyone. There wasn't room.
Judge : No. But what I'm saying - let me rephrase: To make room, you were picking women out and saying, "You, you and you have to be sent back to be killed."
Hanna Schmitz : Well, what would you have done?
[long pause]
Hanna Schmitz : Should I never have signed up at Siemens?
