This week I read a book (and later watched the corresponding movie) called “The Pianist.” This Holocaust memoir by Wladyslaw Szpilman recounts the tragic sequence of events that led to the murder of his family, the ruin of his home, and the destruction of nations. Szpilman was part of a middle-class Jewish family living in Warsaw. They were kind-hearted, honest people—the sort who could be your neighbors. When the Nazis first invaded Poland, the Szpilmans never foresaw their fate. Like many others, they believed an easy war would bring a swift end to any violence. Yet as the war dragged on, the Nazi noose only tightened. The indignity when all Jews were required to wear armbands marked with the Star of David! The shame of being ordered out of restaurants, shops, and public parks! And the shocking establishment of the ghetto, whose walls confined all Jews to a space where …