Daniel is the narrator, the main character, and the protagonist. As the protagonist, the reader roots for Daniel. The reader follows his journey from innocence to experience and wants him to survive the genocide. He’s the reader’s entry into the horrors of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. The narrative goes through him, and he’s a reliable narrator: The information he supplies adheres to historical accounts. What happened to Daniel happened to people in real life. They experienced dispossession, displacement, ghettoization, inhumane concentration camps, and massive death and suffering.

Carol Matas makes it easy for the reader to like Daniel and take his side. She gives him a few faults to make him relatable. As a kid, he goofs off in class and hits Friedrich for breaking one of his toys. As he faces the Nazi genocidal system, Daniel’s character reveals how difficult it can be to maintain hope and honor. He wishes he could “wipe the entire human race off the face of the earth” (69), considers jumping in the pit of corpses, and wants to kill the Nazi officers during the uprising. Erika talks him out of eradicating humans, and his dad dissuades him from jumping in the pit and killing the Nazis.