Amsterdam today. Pause on a bridge and watch the Amstel River gently flow through picturesque canals. Eighty years ago, the same vista might have revealed a horror – bodies floating by of Jews who had flung themselves into the Amstel rather than face cruel death from the occupying Nazi forces. A park bench in the Dutch city today. A young couple embraces in glowing sunshine. Eight decades ago, benches in parks and public squares were specifically barred to Jews. “Jews found seated upon these benches,” noted a newspaper account published in September 1942, “will be arrested and deported to forced...