Part 2, Chapter 13 Summary

In June, the court suspends local activities for two weeks. The judges and other court officials then travel to Israel where they depose the surviving mother who has not traveled to Germany to testify. During the break Michael spends a large amount of time mentally fantasizing about Hanna, imagining her as a cruel Nazi tyrant dressed in riding boots and slashing a riding whip. He imagines her as perversely sexual and insanely cruel. He then remembers having sex with her. Michael, as narrator, then briefly relates the history of Holocaust literature and notes having read much of it.

Part 2, Chapter 13 Analysis

Michael's mental images of Hanna are striking and violent, but at the same time, he apparently finds them sexually stimulating. He is once again unable to fully understand her actions, and yet he is simultaneously unwilling to ultimately condemn them...