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Michael : Miss Mather ?
Mather : Yes.
Mather : You’re Michael Berg. I was expecting you. Please.
Michael : Thank you.
Mather : So you must tell me exactly what brings you to the United States ?
Michael : I was already here. I was at a conference in Boston.
Mather : You’re a lawyer?
Michael : Yes.
Mather : I was
intrigued by your
letter But I can’t say I wholly understood it. You attended the trial ?
Michael : Yes. Almost twenty years ago. I was a law student. I remember you, I
remember your mother very clearly.
Mather : My mother died in Israel a
good many years ago.
Michael : I'm sorry.
Mather : Go On, please!
Michael : Perhaps you heard. Hanna Schmitz recently died. She killed herself.
Mather : She was a friend of yours ?
Michael : A kind of friend. It’s as simple as this. Hanna was illiterate for
the greater part of her life.
Mather : Is that an explanation of her behavior ?
Michael : No.
Mather : Or an excuse ?
Michael : No. No. She taught herself to read when she was in prison. I sent
her tapes. She’d always liked being read to.
Mather : Why don’t you start by being honest with me? What was the nature of
your friendship ?
Michael : When I was young I had
an affair with Hanna.
Mather : I’m not sure I can help you, Mr. Berg. Or rather, even if I could I’m
not willing to.
Michael : I was almost sixteen when I took up with her. The affair only lasted
a summer, but...
Mather : But what? I see. And did Hanna Schmitz acknowledge the effect she’d
had on your life ?
Michael : She’d done much worse to other people. I’ve never told anyone.
Mather : People ask all the time what I learned in the camps. But the camps
weren’t therapy. What do you think these places were? Universities? We didn’t go
there to learn. One becomes very clear
about these things. What are
you asking for? Forgiveness for her? Or do you just want to feel better
yourself? My advice, go to the theatre, if you want catharsis, please. Go to
literature. Don't go to the camps. Nothing comes
out of the camps.
Nothing.
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