Kate Winslet's character in the movie The Reader is based on a real-life war criminal. The woman she plays, Hanna Schmitz, was inspired by Ilse Koch, a notorious Nazi concentration camp guard.  Ilse Koch was known as the "Bitch of Buchenwald." She was sentenced to life in prison for her crimes and eventually took her own life, similar to Hanna Schmitz in the film. Bernhard Schlink wrote...