The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman is a powerful recalling of the author’s experiences in Warsaw during World War II. When his family is sent to the infamous Warsaw Ghetto, Wladek (his nickname) earns money by playing piano in the ghetto cafes. When his family is sent to the trains to the concentration camps, Wladek is plucked from the edge of doom and spends the rest of the war hiding in the ruins of the ghetto, getting by as he can. Wladek responds to crisis by taking his emotions out of the equation, and reports his memories as they come to him. When he discusses the loss of his family, the horrors he sees, he does so dispassionately, like a reporter. He does this because to inject how he feels would compromise his narrative and would distract him from getting his thoughts down on paper and out of his brain forever. The resulting memoir is not necessarily in chronological order, but is no less powerful as a result. As we journey with Wladek, as we see what he saw, even at this distance in the twenty-first century, the overwhelming response must be “Never again can this be allowed to happen.”