Bruno, the nine-year-old protagonist of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas , tragically dies at the end of the story. After befriending Shmuel, a Jewish boy imprisoned in a concentration camp, Bruno decides to help Shmuel find his missing father. To do this, Bruno disguises himself by wearing a pair of striped pajamas like the prisoners and sneaks under the camp fence into the camp
. Inside the camp, Bruno and Shmuel are caught up in a group of prisoners who are herded into a gas chamber. Unaware of the true nature of the chamber, Bruno holds Shmuel's hand as the door closes and toxic gas is released, killing both boys along with many others
. Bruno’s death leaves his family devastated and grieving, underscoring the novel’s powerful themes about innocence, the horrors of the Holocaust, and the tragic consequences of prejudice and hatred
