Part 2 Chapter 5

I N THE SECOND week, the indictment¹ was read out. It took a day and a half to read—a day and a half in the subjunctive. The first defendant² is alleged³ to have . . . Furthermore she is alleged . . . In addition, she is alleged . . . Thus she comes under the necessary conditions of paragraph so-and-so, furthermore she is alleged to have committed this and that act . . . She is alleged to have acted illegally and culpably⁴. Hanna was the fourth defendant.

The five accused women had been guards in a small camp near Cracow, a satellite camp for Auschwitz. They had been transferred there from Auschwitz in early 1944 to replace guards killed or injured in an explosion in the factory where the women in the camp worked. One count of the indictment involved their conduct at Auschwitz, but that was of minor⁵ significance compared with the other charges. I no longer remember it. Was it because it didn’t involve Hanna, but only the other women? Was it of minor importance in relation to the other counts, or minor, period? Did it simply seem inexcusable to have someone available for trial who had been in Auschwitz and not charge them about their conduct in Auschwitz?

Of course the five defendants⁶ had not been in charge of the camp. There was a commandant, plus special troops, and other female guards. Most of the troops and guards had not survived the bombing raid that put an end one night to the prisoners’ westward⁷ march. Some fled the same night, and vanished as surely as the commandant, who had made himself scarce as soon as the column of prisoners set off on the forced march to the west.

None of the prisoners should, by rights, have survived the night of the bombing. But two did survive, a mother and her daughter, and the daughter had written a book about the camp and the march west and published it in America. The police and prosecutors⁸ had tracked down not only the five defendants but several witnesses who had lived in the village which had taken the bombing hits that ended the death march. The most important witnesses were the daughter, who had come to Germany, and the mother, who had remained in Israel. To depose⁹ the mother the court, prosecutors, and defense¹⁰ lawyers were going to go to Israel—the only part of the trial I did not attend.

One main charge concerned selections in the camp. Each month around sixty new women were sent out from Auschwitz and the same number were sent back, minus those who had died in the meantime. It was clear to everyone that the women would be killed in Auschwitz; it was those who could no longer perform useful work in the factory who were sent back. The factory made munitions¹¹; the actual work was not difficult, but the women hardly ever got to do the actual work, because they had to do raw construction to repair the devastating¹² damage caused by the explosion early in the year.

The other main charge involved the night of the bombing that ended everything. The troops and guards had locked the prisoners, several hundred women, in a church in a village that had been abandoned by most of its inhabitants. Only a few bombs fell, possibly intended for the nearby railroad or a factory, or maybe simply released because they were left over from a raid on a larger town. One of them hit the priest’s house in which the troops and guards were sleeping. Another landed on the church steeple. First the steeple burned, then the roof; then the blazing rafters collapsed¹³ into the nave¹⁴, and the pews caught fire. The heavy doors were unbudgeable. The defendants could have unlocked them. They did not, and the women locked in the church burned to death.

　　第二周，法庭宣读起诉书。宣读起诉书用了一天半的时间，使用了一天半的虚拟式。被告首先犯有……此外她犯有……再有她犯有……因此她触犯了某条某款，此外她犯有这种罪行和那种罪行，她的行为是违法的和犯罪的。汉娜是第四名被告人。

　　这五名被告都是克拉科夫一所小集中营的女看守。克拉科夫是奥斯威辛的一个外围集中营。一九四四年春，她们从奥斯威辛被派往那里。她们是代替在一家工厂的爆炸中被炸死或者炸伤的女看守们。在那家工厂里，集中营里的女囚犯们要做工。指控之一是被告们在奥斯威辛的行为，不过，与另一项指控相比，这一指控又显得不那么重要了。我已不记得另一项指控是什么了。它们与汉娜毫无关系而只涉及到另外几位女看守吗？难道与另一项指控相比对奥斯威辛的指控就不重要了吗？或者它本身就不重要？一个在奥斯威辛呆过并由此而被捕的人却不是因为他在奥斯威辛的行为而遭到指控，这不显得令人难以容忍吗？

　　当然了，这五名被告并不是那所集中营的头头。集中营有一名指挥官，一个警卫队还有其他女看守。一天夜里，囚犯们被赶着西行，途中遭到轰炸，大部分警卫队的人和女看守在轰炸中丧了生，有几位当天夜里开了小差，而指挥官出发不久就逃得无影无踪了。

　　那些囚犯在那天晚上的轰炸中本不该有任何人能活下来，但是还是有一对母女活了下来。那位女儿写了一本关于集中营和那次西行的书，并在美国付样。警察和检查院不仅找到了这五名被告，而且还找到了几位证人，西行队伍在一个村子遭到轰炸时他们就住在那个村子里。最重要的证人就是那位女儿和她的留在以色列的母亲。女儿专程来到了德国。为了向她的母亲取证，法庭、检查官和辩护人去了以色列。那是审理过程中我唯一没经历到的一个片段。

　　最主要的一项指控是在集中营中进行的挑选。每个月大约有六十名妇女被送出奥斯威辛，同样也有这个数目的妇女被送进来，这个数目不包括在这期间死掉的。所有的人都清楚，这些妇女在奥斯威辛将被杀掉，这些被送进来的都是在工厂里木能再做工的。那是一家弹药厂，尽管弹药厂本身的工作并不繁重，但是在那家弹药厂里，妇女们几乎没做她们本该做的工作，而是要参加建筑，因为年初的一次爆炸使工厂遭到严重破坏。

　　另一项重要指控涉及那个遭到轰炸的夜晚，一切都结束于那一夜。警卫队和女看守们一起把好几百号的女囚徒关在了一个村子的教堂里。大部分村民已经逃离。没有落下几枚炸弹，轰炸的目标也许是附近的火车道，或者一座工厂，也许是在空袭一座大城市之后还剩几枚炸弹，于是随意乱投下一枚炸弹刚好击中了警卫队和女看守们过夜的牧师住宅，另一枚炸弹落到了教堂的塔上。起初是搭着了火，接着是教堂的房顶，然后教堂的全部屋梁火光冲天地塌陷到了教堂的里面，于是，教堂里面的全部椅子都开始着火。沉重的大门纹丝不动。那些被告完全可以把门打开，但是她们没有这样做，那些被关在教堂里的妇女都被烧死了。

1 indictment   

n.起诉；诉状

参考例句：

• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。
• They issued an indictment against them.他们起诉了他们。

2 defendant   

n.被告；adj.处于被告地位的

参考例句：

• The judge rejected a bribe from the defendant's family.法官拒收被告家属的贿赂。
• The defendant was borne down by the weight of evidence.有力的证据使被告认输了。

3 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

4 culpably   

adv.该罚地，可恶地

参考例句：

5 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

6 defendants   

被告( defendant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The courts heard that the six defendants had been coerced into making a confession. 法官审判时发现6位被告人曾被迫承认罪行。
• As in courts, the defendants are represented by legal counsel. 与法院相同，被告有辩护律师作为代表。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

7 westward   

n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西

参考例句：

• We live on the westward slope of the hill.我们住在这座山的西山坡。
• Explore westward or wherever.向西或到什么别的地方去勘探。

8 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

9 depose   

vt.免职；宣誓作证

参考例句：

• The witness is going to depose.证人即将宣誓做证。
• The emperor attempted to depose the Pope.皇帝企图废黜教皇。

10 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

11 munitions   

n.军火，弹药；v.供应…军需品

参考例句：

• The army used precision-guided munitions to blow up enemy targets.军队用精确瞄准的枪炮炸掉敌方目标。
• He rose [made a career for himself] by dealing in munitions.他是靠贩卖军火发迹的。

12 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

13 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

14 nave   

n.教堂的中部；本堂

参考例句：

• People gathered in the nave of the house.人们聚拢在房子的中间。
• The family on the other side of the nave had a certain look about them,too.在中殿另一边的那一家人，也有着自己特有的相貌。