Stuart Jeffries

Has Germany finally shaken off its dark past?

‘When it comes to helping others, we are the world champions’, one politician declared in 2015. But Merkel’s welcome to immigrants was pragmatic – and anti-Semitism is on the rise again

Angela Merkel poses with a Syrian refugee in Berlin in 2015. [Getty Images]
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  • Out of Darkness: The Germans, 1942-2022

    Frank Trentmann

    Allen Lane, pp. 838, £40

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