This wonderful and profound remark never ceases to be topical

A. J. P. Taylor: 

''If the Germans had succeeded in exterminating their Slav neighbors, as the Anglo-Saxons in North America succeeded in exterminating the Indians, the effect would have been what it has been on the Americans: the Germans would have become advocates of brotherly love and international reconciliation.''

This profound remark never ceases to be topical, but Taylor, displaying his Shavian gift for paradox, is inaccurate, not for the only time. In fact the Indians died from disease mostly, but probably diseases brought by the white men to which the natives had no immunity. Only a smallish minority were killed by white men. But this does only slightly detracts from his point.

In fact the Germans did exterminate about 25 million Slavs in the Second World War and have become advocates of brotherly love and international reconciliation. 

To Europe's cost, as when Frau Merkel welcomed in a million young men without papers from diverse countries, Germans have moved from insane nationalism to insane internationalism.