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The easiest thing to do when something awful happens is to do something awful yourself.

So a man steals a Polish truck and ploughs through a crowd of Christmas market shoppers in Berlin, and it turns out he had claimed asylum, and a lot of people go "well it just goes to show you shouldn't let them in".

I've lost count of the number of people who've said since: "This is the legacy of Angela Merkel's open door to refugees."

Well, no it isn't.

This is the legacy of people who believe that what they FEEL is the truth must BE the truth. And that's not how truth works.

Here is the truth we know so far.

(Image: Alamy)

In 2010Anis Amri, the Berlin terror attack suspect, was accused of stealing a lorry in his homeland of Tunisia. His family say he drank, had girlfriends, and was not overtly religious.

In February 2011 he was charged with armed robbery but fled the country. He was convicted in his absence and handed a five year sentence.

He went to Italy, where he claimed asylum as a minor - he was probably about 17 at the time - but after a series of crimes including arson at a school he was given a four-year jail sentence.

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Upon his release in early 2015 he was taken to a detention centre to await deportation. His family say he had become religious. In July his expulsion order expired because Tunisia didn't sort out the paperwork.

He was ordered to leave Italy anyway, and so crossed into Germany where he claimed asylum in July 2015.

In August 2015, German president Angela Merkel responded to the growing migrant crisis by saying her country would take in 1million Syrians.

She was heavily criticised by right-wing politicians, who said this was an open invitation to terrorists.

(Image: PA)

In February 2016 Amri moved to Berlin and a month later came under investigation after a tip-off to police that he was preparing an act of terror.

In June 2016 his claim for asylum was rejected. He was detained for a day but because he had no identity documents they could not establish he was the right man, so had to let him go. By this point he claimed six separate identities and three different nationalities.

In August 2016 Amri was arrested for a minor offence, and Germany asked Tunisia to provide a passport so they could deport him.

In September 2016 surveillance was called off. Amri was seen dealing drugs and fighting in a bar, but there was no sign of terrorism.

Last month extremists linked to Amri were arrested and questioned. Security services exchanged information and police issued a warning that Amri is dangerous.

On December 21, 2016, Amri is thought to have hijacked a lorry carrying 25 tonnes of steel just outside Berlin.

Polish lorry driver Lukasz Urban was parked near a kebab shop. At 3pm he spoke to his wife. At 3.19pm and 3.44pm his employer's tracking computer registered failed attempts to start the engine.

Urban is thought to have been stabbed and beaten, probably into unconsciousness, as this was a public place and stabbing is quiet.

At 5pm and 5.34pm the lorry was driven short distances by someone who was 'choking' the engine. At 7.34pm it was in the square where the Christmas market was being held.

(Image: Handout)

Shortly after 8pm the lorry's lights were switched off and it swerved right at speed, into the crowd. lt killed 12 people and injured another 48, 18 of them critically.

What is odd is that the lorry swerved left again almost immediately, back onto the street and away from the shoppers, before coming to a halt. The hijacker got out and ran away.

A passerby saw and gave chase, providing a running commentary to police on his mobile phone, but lost him in the crowds.

Lukasz' body was found in the cab, along with a lot of blood and Amri's wallet.

Lukasz' family say from the pictures they have seen and police reports, he appears to have fought with his attacker.

Which means that a stabbed and heavily-bleeding man awoke from unconsciousness to realise his attacker was about to mow down pedestrians.

He may have grabbed the wheel or punched the hijacker, but his actions probably caused the lorry to veer away from other shoppers and come to a halt.

Lukasz was 6ft 2ins and weighed 18 stone, and despite his injuries he put up an heroic fight.

The hijacker killed Lukasz with a gunshot. By this point, the noise no longer mattered.

(Image: REUTERS)

Lukasz is dead, along with a dozen others. Amri is on the run. The German security forces look like idiots and Angela Merkel is taking the blame for all of it.

But the facts tell a different story to the one you're hearing from people with shouty voices and tiny minds.

The massacre would have been many times worse were it not for the actions of a Polish lorry driver who depended upon the reviled border-free Schengen zone for his livelihood.

Had Germany thrown up borders as so many want it to, Amri could still have claimed asylum and there would still have been trucks for a terrorist to hijack.

Lukasz would not have been among their drivers. Lukasz saved hundreds of lives yet is little more than a footnote in the furore.

(Image: REUTERS)

The German security forces had Amri in their sights, but no evidence.

A civilised nation does not charge or jail anyone for a thing they MIGHT do. If we do it to terrorists, then we will do it to anyone.

The simple and hard truth is that if a few thousand people want to kill you, one of them will probably manage it.

They only have to get it right once.

Germany did not 'let Amri in', and nor did Italy. He was denied the right to remain in two nations which picked him up on their radar in exactly the way they should have done.

It was Tunisia who allowed a wanted criminal to roam free, and to leave its borders.

It was Tunisia who refused to accept him back.

It was Tunisia that took four months to issue a passport.

And it's Tunisia that has a massive problem with terrorism, and an estimated 7,000 of its citizens who are members of Islamic State.

(Image: AFP)

And this is not Angela Merkel's legacy. She did not open the door to armed robbers, she did not offer asylum to Tunisians, and Amri got into Germany a month before she opened the door to anyone else.

Her legacy is that she did a decent thing, despite the criticism. Thousands of Germans welcomed the migrants and opened their homes. However well or badly that went they were decent, they were kind, they were open.

Amri was not a refugee. He was a wrong 'un before he was radicalised, a wrong 'un afterwards, and he'll be just as wrong when he's shot dead by the police on his trail and finds out there's no heaven for wrong 'uns.

We are at war - with a few thousand people out there who want to kill us, and a few thousand in here who want to frighten us. Who bend the truth to suit their nightmares, to seize power, to get paid for spouting stupidity, and who simply don't care when they've got it wrong.

They don't realise they're on the same side as the terrorists. They all want us to turn away, punish others and polarise.

Being open doesn't terrorise anyone. Being decent doesn't get you killed. And the truth NEVER goes away.