She denies authorship of a report on the church fire, despite pressure from the other defendants, but then admits it rather than complying with a demand to provide a handwriting sample.... she is illiterate and has concealed it her whole life. The other female guards who claim she wrote the report are lying to place responsibility on Hanna. wikipedia

So, she said she was guilty (even though she wasn't) only not to write down something, because she wasn't able. The whole life she's too ashamed of this thing so she never admitted, even if admitting it would have saved her from prison.

I don't think the other female guards knew about her illiteracy or at list it's not shown in the movie (you could read the book -- The reader if you want to have more details), but I think that's the point: she can easily admit she can't read or write to defend herself. I also think she was not guilty (because the movie led me that way) even if I found several sources stating that the movie contained a cutback scene to her standing refusing to open the doors and allowing the 300 to burn.

She denies authorship of a report on the church fire, despite pressure from the other defendants, but then admits it rather than complying with a demand to provide a handwriting sample.... she is illiterate and has concealed it her whole life. The other female guards who claim she wrote the report are lying to place responsibility on Hanna. wikipedia

So, she said she was guilty (even though she wasn't) only not to write down something, because she wasn't able. The whole life she's too ashamed of this thing so she never admitted, even if admitting it would have reduced her sentence in prison.

I don't think the other female guards knew about her illiteracy or at list it's not shown in the movie (you could read the book -- The reader if you want to have more details), but I think that's the point: she can easily admit she can't read or write to defend herself. I also think she was not guilty (because the movie led me that way) even if I found several sources stating that the movie contained a cutback scene to her standing refusing to open the doors and allowing the 300 to burn.

She denies authorship of a report on the church fire, despite pressure from the other defendants, but then admits it rather than complying with a demand to provide a handwriting sample.... she is illiterate and has concealed it her whole life. The other female guards who claim she wrote the report are lying to place responsibility on Hanna. wikipedia

So, she said she was guilty (even though she wasn't) only not to write down something, because she wasn't able. The whole life she's too ashamed of this thing so she never admitted, even if admitting it would have saved her from prison.

She denies authorship of a report on the church fire, despite pressure from the other defendants, but then admits it rather than complying with a demand to provide a handwriting sample.... she is illiterate and has concealed it her whole life. The other female guards who claim she wrote the report are lying to place responsibility on Hanna. wikipedia

So, she said she was guilty (even though she wasn't) only not to write down something, because she wasn't able. The whole life she's too ashamed of this thing so she never admitted, even if admitting it would have saved her from prison.

I don't think the other female guards knew about her illiteracy or at list it's not shown in the movie (you could read the book -- The reader if you want to have more details), but I think that's the point: she can easily admit she can't read or write to defend herself. I also think she was not guilty (because the movie led me that way) even if I found several sources stating that the movie contained a cutback scene to her standing refusing to open the doors and allowing the 300 to burn.