The Boy in the Striped Pajamas Chapter 20 Summary

How It All Goes Down

The Last Chapter

  • Several days later, the soldiers search the house, local towns, and villages for the disappeared Bruno. All they can find, though, are his clothes.
  • Bruno's mother stays in the house waiting for news, but then goes back to Berlin, thinking he'll be there. He's not.
  • Gretel goes with her, while their father stays at Auschwitz for another year.
  • One day he forms a theory and retraces Bruno's steps—as he sits almost exactly where Bruno used to sit by the fence, he understands what happened.
  • "Other soldiers" (a.k.a. the Allies) come to Auschwitz and order Bruno's father to go with them.