As Germany wrestles with whether to finally permit the publication of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf," controversies in a number of European countries make it seem as though World War II never ended. One has to wonder if, with the passing of the generation that actually fought the war, the time hasn't come to set a cut-off date for its use by politicians.
Consider these recent news items:
• In France, the leader of the far-right National Front party, Marine Le Pen had a public falling-out with her father, the movement's founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, about his statement that the gas chambers were a "detail" of World War II. She called it "political suicide" and elbowed him toward the exit, yet it looked suspiciously like political theater designed to persuade mainstream voters that the Front was no longer part of a xenophobic fringe (Le Pen senior remains the party's honorary chairman).