Michael Berg

Michael Berg is the protagonist and narrator of the novel. He is born in 1943 in West Germany and grows up under the foreign occupation after World War II in an atmosphere heavily tainted by Nazi atrocities. When he is 15-years-old he meets the 36-year-old Hanna Schmitz, who seduces him and has a sexual relationship with him for several months. Hanna then abruptly disappears, and Michael blames himself, feeling she must be punishing him for doing something wrong.

Michael next meets Hanna in a courtroom when he is in his early 20s. He is a university student studying law and attends a random war crimes trial as a course assignment. He is amazed to discover that Hanna is on trial for war crimes. He learns that she was a Nazi, a member of the SS, and served as a prison guard at Auschwitz, where she took part in...