“The Reader” – A Review and a Though Part I
I saw “The Reader”, directed by Stephen Daldry, tonight and thought it was a very powerful work about redemption and forgiveness. Michael Berg is tormented his whole life by his cowardly act of not speaking the truth at the trial Hanna Schmitz and his eventual reckoning and forgiveness. Hanna never forgives herself; although throughout the movie it seems she cannot understand the horrific deeds that she facilitated.
Not enough is revealed to know how it came to be that Hanna was illiterate or what early childhood experiences led her to be so obedient to authority that she could do nothing but follow orders and guard the prisoners even as they were burning alive. However, the early scenes of the movie show Hanna to be capable of connecting to people on a sensual and even emotional level. Her tears as Michael read to her illustrate her humanity and allow us to glimpse inside a shattered human being. There is a hint that Hanna could have been shattered by her complicity in the Nazi War Crimes even though this is not evident at the trial. We do not know.
What we do know is that Hanna is deeply ashamed of her illiteracy. This could also be a reflection of the shame she feels about her actions in the Holocuast, but she is unable to channel that shame. She asks one of the Justices at her war crimes trial: “ What would you have done?” This question silences the justice because he himself does not know what he would do if placed into such a situation.
The question is: “When does a job stop being ethical or moral?” When is the line crossed if your actions are legal where you live, but are blatantly immoral and unethical? On the other hand, what if ethics and morality have been twisted for a decade by a powerful propaganda machine and are no longer considered real? Yet these ethics and morals are still very real to the people who are living inside the world dominated by these ethics. This was the world of Nazi Germany. Consequently this was the world of Hanna Schmitz and the rest of the German population.
Does this mean that the Germans get a pass? No, there were many Germans who relished in the torture and destruction of human lives, yet there were many more that were doing their jobs, etching out a living, trying to survive in a total war economy. Such was Hanna Schmitz. She did not mastermind the Holocaust, she did not mastermind Barbarossa, nor did she build Auschwitz. To her, it was a job. It is difficult to imagine the kind of strain that this kind of work can place on a person. We do not know who Hanna was before she went to the death camp. All we know is what we see in her brief romantic scene with Michael and from that scene I learned that Hanna was not a mean spirited manipulator or a naïve illiterate; Hanna Schmitz was a human being was probably suffering from a severe case of PTSD.
How do we forgive people like Hanna who were “just following orders”? There were thousands of SS guards, yet only a handful was ever prosecuted. Hanna Schmitz was as much a victim of the SS machine as everyone else in WWII. In taking her own life, Hanna recaptures her humanity in denying herself freedom and a chance at redemption and fully realizing her guilt. Although her final exchange with Michael seems dry, her words “They are dead” drive home her inability to forgive herself for what she has done and proves that she has learned more than just “to read”.
Taking this very question of “just following orders” to the present day, we see an example of soldiers not wanting to go back to Iraq or Afghanistan. If one were to say that neither war is a just war, then their refusal is dictating by the UCMJ code of the military that allows soldiers to refuse to perform unlawful orders. What is a lawful order and what is an unlawful order is a very controversial point, but the fact that everyone who is taking part in an unjust war can be just as guilty of Hanna Schmits “just doing my job” scenario is evident.
Is the fighter pilot who drops a 10,000 pound bomb on a village killing 300 civilians a war criminal? Or is the General who ordered the strike the culprit. If the Pilot refused to drop the bomb, he could be demoted or even court-martialed. Hanna Schmit may have been shot.
People who have never experienced the situation of facing an unethical order or being harmed themselves or even killed for their refusal have a hard time of understanding why people like Hanna don’t just kill themselves or get themselves out of the situation. I would like to see these armchair generals be placed in the situation where they can do their job or lose everything they have lived for. There are a few soldiers who live by a certain honor code and we find them as expats in Canada or at Ft. Levenworth. Most, however, believe in the mantra that is fed to them by the government and do their job. Many come back with severe psychological trauma, yet many are not touched because they were, after all, only doing their jobs.
Does that make them horrible, evil people? It makes them victims.
