THE VERDICT was handed down at the end of June. Hanna was sentenced to life. The others received terms in jail.
The courtroom was as full as it had been at the beginning of the trial. People from the justice system, students from my university and the local one, a class of schoolchildren, domestic and foreign journalists, and the people who always find their way into courtrooms. It was loud. At first, no one noticed when the defendants were brought in. But then the spectators fell silent. The first to stop talking were those sitting up front near the defendants. They nudged their neighbors and turned around to those sitting behind them. “Look,” they whispered, and those who looked fell silent too and nudged their neighbors and turned to those sitting behind them and whispered, “Look!” Until eventually the whole courtroom was silent.
I don’t know if Hanna knew how she looked, or maybe she wanted to look like that. She was wearing a black suit and a white blouse, and the cut of the suit and the tie that went with the blouse made her look as if she were in uniform. I have never seen the uniform of the women who worked for the SS. But I believed, and the spectators all believed, that before us we were seeing that uniform, and the woman who had worked for the SS in it, and all the crimes Hanna was accused of doing.
The spectators began to whisper again. Many were audibly outraged. They felt that Hanna was ridiculing the trial, the verdict, and themselves, they who had come to hear the verdict read out. They became more vociferous, and some of them began calling out what they thought of Hanna. But then the court entered the courtroom and after an irritated glance at Hanna, the judge announced the verdict. Hanna listened standing up, straight-backed, and absolutely motionless. She sat down during the reading of the reasons for the verdict. I did not take my eyes off her head and neck.
The entire verdict took several hours to read. When the trial was over and the defendants were being led away, I waited to see whether Hanna would look at me. I was sitting in the same place I always sat. But she looked straight ahead and through everything. A proud, wounded, lost, and infinitely tired look. A look that wished to see nothing and no one.
六月底,宣布了審判結(jié)果。漢娜被判處終身監(jiān)禁,其他人被判處有期徒刑。
法院大廳里像審判之初一樣座無虛席,其中有司法部門的工作人員、我所在大學(xué)及當(dāng)?shù)卮髮W(xué)的學(xué)生們、一組中學(xué)生、國內(nèi)外的記者和那些平時總是在場的人。大廳里喧囂不止。當(dāng)被告被傳叫送來時,起初沒有人注意她們,但是隨后大廳就變得鴉雀無聲了。首先是在被告前就座的聽眾安靜了下來。他們碰碰左右的鄰居,然后轉(zhuǎn)過身來對坐在后面的人低聲地說道:"注意看片于是后面的人開始向前看,并安靜下來。他們再碰碰左右鄰居,然后轉(zhuǎn)向他們身后的男人低聲說:"注意看!。這樣,審判大廳終于變得鴉雀無聲了。
我不知道是否漢娜自己也清楚她看上去是什么樣子,也許她愿意看上去就是這個樣子。她穿了一套黑色套裝,配一件白襯衫。那套裝的式樣和襯衫的領(lǐng)帶使她看上去就好像穿了一套制服。我從未見過為納粹黨衛(wèi)軍工作的女人們所穿的制服,但是我認為——所有其他的聽眾也都這樣認為,我們眼前的這個制服就是納粹黨衛(wèi)軍的女式制服,這個女人就是穿著這樣的制服為納粹黨衛(wèi)軍工作的,漢娜的所作所為就是她被控告的原因。
聽眾又開始小聲嘀咕起來。很多人發(fā)出的憤怒的聲音都可以聽得到。他們認為審判過程、判決還有那些為聽宣讀判決結(jié)果而來的人都被漢娜嘲弄了。他們的聲音越來越大,少數(shù)人向漢娜又喊又叫,清楚地說出他們認為漢娜是什么東西,直到審判人員步人大廳,審判長憤怒地看著漢娜宣布判決結(jié)果時人們才安靜下來。漢娜筆直地站著,一動不動地聽著。當(dāng)宣讀判決原因時,她坐了下來。我的目光一直沒有離開漢娜的頭和后頸。
宣判持續(xù)了好幾個小時。當(dāng)宣判結(jié)束后被告被帶走時,我在等著,看漢娜是否會看我一眼。我坐在老位子上。但是,她目不斜視,看穿了一切。那是一種高傲的、受到傷害的、絕望的、無限疲憊的目光,一種任何人、任何東西都不想看的目光。