Helmuth is the protagonist of The Boy Who Dared. In the passages that occur in his present, he is seventeen years old. His flashbacks chart different ages of his childhood. Helmuth is a dynamic character because he changes throughout the novel. As a young boy, Helmuth wants to be brave and independent, and sees the Nazi soldiers as role models. He does not have a father figure and admires the Nazis. As Hitler’s influence on Germany deepens, Helmuth becomes disillusioned and then angry about the Nazi regime. Unlike other characters in the novel, Helmuth is a free thinker who believes that his personal beliefs are more important than shared national beliefs. As Helmuth fights the status quo, he uses his leadership skills to steer his peers away from the Nazis. He fulfills the expectation that he is a brave leader, but does so in the opposite way that people expect.

Helmuth is motivated by his faith in God, loyalty to his friends, and revealing the truth to others. As a Mormon, Helmuth looks to God for guidance and feels that rebelling against Hitler’s evil is God’s will. Helmuth also places his friends before himself, demonstrated by his willingness to undergo torture to save them from arrest, and then by his purposeful instigation in court that saves them from the death penalty.