Architectural design can play a role in helping make the past present in meaningful ways when applied to pre-existing buildings and places that carry notable and troubling pasts. In this comparative analysis, Rumiko Handa establishes the critical role architectural designs play in presenting difficult pasts by examining documentation centers in Germany. Presenting Difficult Pasts through Architecture analyses four centers—Cologne, Nuremberg, Berlin, and Munich—and their shared intent to make material evidence of National Socialism involvement in authentic perpetrator sites which were part of both peaceful prior histories and current everyday life. Applying original frameworks, Handa considers what more architectural design could do toward meaningful representations and interpretations. This book is a must-read for students practitioners and academics interested in how architectural design can participate in presenting the difficult pasts of historical places in meaningful ways.