Hanna is not a victim of circumstances as much as she is a victim of her own circumstances that she manages to place herself in. She is caught up in one of the most heinous eras of the human history and yet it becomes evident that her self-dignity is more important to her then spending the remainder of her life in jail. The most important point that should be looked at is that she can't read; she is an illiterate. She manages to alienate her self from the court with her arrogance and this is prowled upon by the other defendants and the persecutors who begin to see her as a scapegoat for, not just Hanna's but all of their crimes. .
Her illiteracy is what was essentially leads her to be in such a situation. The lawyer at one point asks her (pg 94), "Is it true that you joined the SS even though Siemens had offered you a job as a foreman?" We know that, because of her illiteracy, she couldn't accept the promotion at Siemens, which subsequently lead to her joining the SS. As the trial proceeds, she is unable to review the charges and compile objections that could have highly helped her defence, once again because she is illiterate. Michael later says (pg 107), "After the indictment had been read out, she spoke up to say something was incorrect; the presiding judge rebuked her irritably, telling her that she had had plenty of time before the trial to study the charges and register objections." It also didn't help that Hanna had a poor lawyer that arguably made her look worse in the eyes of the jury then better. Michael describes him on pg 94 as "he was too hasty and too zealous in ways that were as damaging to his client as his colleagues" Nazi tirades were to theirs.".
Even though it's her illiteracy that puts in her in such undesired circumstances, it's her pride and dignity that puts her away. When the subject of who wrote the report comes along, Hanna doesn't want to confess that she is illiterate since she would rather rot in jail then succumb to embarrassment and loosing her "dignity".
