he reason she disappointed him, by leaving without a trace. His relationship with Hanna later caused major let downs in his marriage because his wife was not what Hanna was. Hanna was a further disappointment to Michael when she turned out to be a female guard from Auschwitz and was on trial for her crimes. Hanna faced much disappointment during her trial because of the way she handled herself in court. Michael was disappointed in her for not telling the judge that she could not have written the report because she could not read or write. Because she wanted to do the right thing and admit the crimes she had committed, she was made to be the scapegoat and received the longest sentence of the entire group. Before she was released from prison, when Michael came to visit her, she experienced great disappointment in the fact that Michael did not want any kind of relationship with her, a disappointment that drove her to commit suicide the night before she was to be released from prison. One of the reasons that disappointment is such a common theme that occurs so many times in German literature is because it is a theme that pops up all over German history. After becoming “Germany” in 1871 during the war with France, the German people faced their first major disappointment in the coming of World War I. Even though Germany wanted the war, they were soon disappointed and frustrated with the lack of progress the troops were making. As the war ended, the German people were also disenchanted when the count totaled nearly 2 million of their troops that would never return to their families. The greatest disappointment of World War I for the Germans, however, was the Treaty of Versailles. Germany was deprived of military empowerment, destroyed economically, placed under legal sanctions and completely disgraced in politics under the treaty. It was the Treaty of Versailles and its harsh restrictions that allowed a man like Adol...
