Here is a good reason for germany submeriging its identity in a larger European identity: It most appropriately helps spread the guilt:

In Germany, Die Welt sees Thursday's commemoration as an example of what it calls "the Europeanization" of the Holocaust memory.

The paper suggests that Europe is seeking to create a common identity by remembering the mass murder of Jews.

"As a result, it adds, "Auschwitz is becoming an emblem not just of Nazi crimes but also of a Europeanization of national views of history."

The paper observes that for decades countries in Western as well as Eastern Europe failed to acknowledge the scale of their collaboration with the German occupiers.

"'Auschwitz denotes a German crime in which many Europeans were involved," it points out.

As the paper sees it, this does not relieve Germany of its historic guilt, but it does mean that responsibility is shared.

The way the Swiss Le Temps was struck by the ceremony would appear to justify this thesis.

"The dead [of Auschwitz]," the paper says, "have brought the living together in shared contemplation".

"These living," it adds, "are a Europe united as it has never been before by the memory of its self-inflicted evil."