If anywhere in Germany is haunted by memories of the Hitler age, it is likely to be Nuremberg. The medieval Bavarian city, grown large with the coming of modern industry, was host to the annual National Socialist Party rallies in the 1930s and was designated one of the ‘party cities’ in the grandiose building plans promoted by Hitler in the 1930s. It was also home to Julius Streicher, Gauleiter of the region and editor of the rabidly anti-Semitic Der Stürmer, who was hanged in Nuremberg prison in October 1946 as one of the major war criminals.

Nuremberg is home to other ghosts too. The city was devastated almost beyond recognition by Allied bombers, and thousands were killed. If Nuremberg was filled with perpetrators, it was also a city of victims. It is this paradox that lies at the heart of Neil Gregor’s absorbing and thought-provoking new