My family’s past, and Germany’s, weighs heavily upon me. And it’s why I feel so strongly about Gaza | Eva Ladipo

Gen Walter Warlimont, as my grandfather’s brother was formally known, was head of the national defence department in the high command of the Wehrmacht, the armed forces of Nazi Germany.

As I watch how the debate and discussion over the war in Gaza have played out in Germany, in the months since the horrific attacks of 7 October, I worry that even as we constantly invoke the Nazi past, we are forgetting some crucial lessons from our history.

When Masha Gessen wrote an essay in the New Yorker about the aggressive dogmatism of Germany’s pro-Israel stance, much of the German media reacted with outrage.

The Israeli film-maker Yuval Abraham faced similar outrage after he decried Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and called for a ceasefire in a speech at the Berlin film festival.

The fateful events that led to the redemptive foundation of Israel and the tragedy of the Palestinian Nakba, which are illuminated and argued about in the English-speaking world, are discussed much more timidly in Germany, almost as though looking too closely could undermine the moral certainty of being on the right “side”.

But it did serve the interests of peace And yet such simplistic thinking appears to be leading my country into forgetting yet another lesson of the Nazi era: the danger of falling prey to rightwing fanatics.