Totalitarianism's fallout

It is not just we Greeks who are obsessed with the legacy of totalitarianism. As the European Union commemorated the day of remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes on Wednesday, the German magazine Stern presented Donald Trump, draped in the American flag, giving the Nazi salute. Just a few years ago, it seemed that the memories of totalitarian ideologies of the left and right concerned only historians and fringe groups. But our time's divisions are weaponizing memory, resurrecting old grudges with new blood.

In Greece, memory is always a lethal weapon. And the more selective or false, the more dangerous it is. So what is happening in the rest of the world does not surprise us. Comparisons, however, allow us to see where we are ahead, where we are different, where we are more obsessed than others. It is always interesting to see how those...