Germany’s murderous history should give it clarity about the Middle East. Instead, it is paralysed | John Kampfner

Both domestically and internationally, Germany is struggling to disentangle its past from events today in Gaza

Germany, more than any other country, is struggling to disentangle the horrors of the 7 October Hamas massacre in Israel, the subsequent death of more than 30,000 Palestinians and the demolition of Gaza, and the killing of aid workers, from the scale of the Holocaust more than eight decades earlier.

History has come back to haunt Germany with unpredicted ferocity. The confusion is intense, but it predates 7 October and permeates wider questions about the nature of the country's contemporary society.

John Kampfner is a commentator and broadcaster. He is the author of In Search of Berlin and Why the Germans Do It Better