The identity of the real Nazi woman camp guard, who inspired the character of Hanna Schmitz in the film The Reader which won British actress Kate Winslet a Golden Globe has finally been revealed.
The woman Kate Wins l e t plays in the film was one of Germany’s most notorious war criminals, concentration camp guard Ilse Koch, the Guardian reported.
Bernhard Schlink, whose controversial book was adapted for the film, had refused to reveal the basis of Schmitz’s character.
But Professor Bill Niven of Nottingham Trent University, who specialises in literary studies related to Schlink and his works, believes the parallels between Schmitz and Koch are unmistakable. The Professor said that there were numerous similarities between the Ilse Koch and Hanna Schmitz. The most prominent being the fact that Ilse Koch was sentenced to life imprisonment and committed suicide a day before release, just l ike Hanna Schmitz, the character played by Winslet in the holocaust film.