The Reader Page #6

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?

I want to move on now to the march.

As I understand it, you and your

daughter were marched for months.

In the winter of 1944 our camp

was closed down.

We were told we had to move on.

But the plan kept changing

every day.

Women were dying

all around us in the snow.

Half of us died on the march.

My daughter says in the book:

"Less a death march,

more a death gallop".

Please,

tell us about the night

in the church.

That night we thought we were lucky

to have a roof over our heads.

Go on.

We'd arrived in the village.

As always, the guards took

the best quarters,

the priest's house.

But they let us sleep in a church.

There was a bombing raid

in the middle of the night.

The church was hit.

At first we could only hear

the fire that was in the steeple.

Then we could see burning beams

and they began to crash

to the floor.

Everyone rushed...

rushed to the doors.

But the door had been locked,

on the outside.

The church burned down

and nobody came to open the doors.

Is that right?

Nobody.

Even though you were

all burning to death?

How many people were killed?

Everyone was killed.

But you survived.

Thank you.

I want to thank you

for coming to this country

today, to testify.

I don't know.

I don't know

what we're doing here anymore.

Don't you?

You keep telling us to think

like lawyers, but there is something

disgusting about this.

How so?

This didn't happen to the Germans,

it happened to the Jews.

- What are we trying to do?

- We are trying to understand!

Six women locked 300 Jews

in a church and let them burn.

What is there to understand?

Tell me, I'm asking!

What is there to understand?

I started out

believing in this trial,

I thought it was great.

Now I think...

It's just a diversion.

Yes?

Diversion from what?

You choose six women,

you put them on trial,

you say:
"They were the evil ones,"

"they were the guilty ones".

Because one of the victims

happened to write a book.

That's why they're on trial

and nobody else.

Do you know how many camps

there were in Europe?

People go on about

how much did everyone know.

Who knew? What did they know?

Everyone knew.

Our parents, our teachers.

That isn't the question.

The question is

"How could you let this happen?"

And better, "Why didn't you

kill yourself when you found out?"

Thousands. That's how many camps

there were. Everyone knew.

Look at that woman.

Which woman?

The woman you're always staring at.

I'm sorry, but you are.

I don't know which one you mean.

You know what I'd do?

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