The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

[LifeIsGoodish]

Does Bruno's father get what he deserves?

what does he deserve though?

Part of me feels that the murderer deserved to loose the most precious thing in his life - even if he didn't really understand how precious it was. But part of me feels that no-one deserves to be punished that way.

No-one deserved to be rounded up, shot and gassed for their beliefs either. Bruno paid the ultimate price for being a kind person and treating people how they should be treated. His father shouldn't be afforded any sympathy whatsoever. The sympathy should be for his son and the people in the concentration camp, they didn't have a choice. Their suffering was caused and lives were taken by cruel people.

Absolutely.

But if he was to pay the price for his actions, shouldn't he pay it himself, rather than have an innocent pay it? And doesn't imposing on someone the worst suffering imaginable bring you down to their level? Vengeance, rather than punishment?

You are correct in that respect but I expect SS guards, for their own amusement and cruelty would punish the innocent to get revenge on people struggling to survive in order to flush them out to punish them too. We can only imagine the exact horrors of that dark episode of history.

However we don't know what the outcome would have been for Bruno's father but I expect it would have either been suicide, capture, a trial and execution or he could have escaped to South America and waiting daily for the knock on the door from Nazi Hunters.