RODERICK STACKELBERG has an unusual story to tell, particularly of his early years. Stackelberg was born in Munich in 1935 to an American mother and a German father. He grew up in Germany during the Nazi years, including the Second World War, before returning to America with his mother in 1946.

Out of Hitler's Shadow is based on personal journals Stackelberg began keeping as a boy of seven in Germany in 1942. It reconstructs his childhood in Germany, his years of school and college in New England, his return to Germany as a draftee in the American army in 1959, and his years of self-imposed exile in quest of knowledge about his background and his family's past.

Out of Hitler's Shadow presents the first volume of Stackelberg's memoirs of a career devoted to the scholarly study of National Socialism, its antecedents, consequences, and lessons.