Edith Shef­fer is a his­to­ri­an of Ger­many and cen­tral Europe, and a Senior Fel­low at the Insti­tute of Euro­pean Stud­ies at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Berke­ley. She is the author of Asperg­er’s Chil­dren: The Ori­gins of Autism in Nazi Vien­na and the prize-win­ning Burned Bridge: How East and West Ger­mans Made the Iron Cur­tain.