The former director of the British Museum says the UK is unique in Europe for having a "remorseless obsession" with the Nazis and the Second World War.

Speaking at the Hay Literary Festival, art historian Neil MacGregor said this focus on Nazi Germany was not seen anywhere else in Western Europe.

He partially attributed this prepossession to the British school curriculum which "focuses overwhelmingly" on that part of 20th century history, the Telegraph reports.

Mr MacGregor said: "It's clearly the case that the British obsession with the Second World War has left the notion that this is the only Germany and what happened in those 12 years is the central truth about Germany.

"It seems to me that the remorseless focus on only those 12 years has allowed many very educated people to believe that this is the central Germany.

"It's not a phenomenon that you find anywhere else in Western Europe, and I find it very striking."

Mr MacGregor continued:"I think it's something to do with the syllabus in this country, which focuses overwhelmingly on the 20th century and those parts of the 20th century."

Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures Show all 28 1 /28 Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures Great Russell Street entrance to the British Museum TERI PENGILEY Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures The Central Court TERI PENGILEY Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures Heading to the back of the museum TERI PENGILEY Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures The lift, seen on the fourth floor TERI PENGILEY Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures The American Scene exhibition TERI PENGILEY Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures Inside room 90 - the student room TERI PENGILEY Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures The entrance to the student room lies behind this Michelangelo TERI PENGILEY Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures The entrance to the student room TERI PENGILEY Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures The entrance to room 90 TERI PENGILEY Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures Inside room 90 - the student room TERI PENGILEY Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures The student room TERI PENGILEY Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures Inside room 90 - a visitor looks at John Constable's work in the student room TERI PENGILEY Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures Inside room 90 - the student room TERI PENGILEY Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures Inside room 90 - the student room TERI PENGILEY Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures This cigarette card is now worth over £1m after the baseball player demanded its withdrawal TERI PENGILEY Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures The American Scene exhibition. John Steuart Curry TERI PENGILEY Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures The American Scene exhibition. George Bellows TERI PENGILEY Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures The American Scene exhibition. Jackson Pollock TERI PENGILEY Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures Frankie and Johnnie; Missouri State Capitol Mural; Bar scene, woman (Frankie) in white dress and holding a bucket running toward and shooting man (Johnnie), he is pushing over a table at which another woman in white (Nellie Bly) sits with one arm raised, discarded Stetson hat and beer glass on floor, bar-man shouting with arm raised in background, ceiling light, two men escaping through door. 1936. Lithograph. Artist: Thomas Hart Benton. DACS Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures Turning out the light; New York City Life; Woman kneeling on her bed to turn out the light of a gas lamp, her clothes on a chair; from the 'New York City Life' series; published state. 1905. Etching. Artist: John Sloan. Image courtesy of Kraushaar Galleries, New York Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures A stag at Sharkey's: Artist George Bellows, Boxing match, with spectators crowded around ring. 1917 Lithograph Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures The Blue Vase; The Blue Jug; Cubistic still-life with vase of yellow flowers on a red plate, with smaller blue jug left on a check-patterned cloth. 1927 Colour woodcut on Japan paper. Artist: Blanche Lazzell Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures Night on the El Train: Artist Edward Hopper. Eerie scene of couple seated close together in carriage. 1918. Etching. Image courtesy Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures Louis Lozowick, New York; New York cityscape seen from the Elevated line, in Precisionist manner. c.1925. Lithograph. Artist: Louis Lozowick. Image Copyright Lee Lozowick Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures Fandango; Abstract composition indicating rapid movement and direction change. 1949. Colour etching, printed in red, pale pink and black. Artist: Fred Becker Image Copyright Carla Becker Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures Share Croppers; A black man and his wife working with hoes in a featureless landscape. 1944. Artist: Robert Gwathmey. Colour screenprint. Copyright DACS 2008 Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures Robert Gwathmey, Hitch-hiker; Pop-art style image of two men hitching lift, billboard posters behind. 1937. Artist: Robert Gwathmey. Colour screenprint. Copyright DACS 2008 Buried treasure: British Museum's secret treasures Dance in a Madhouse: Artist George Bellows, Women in tormented state, some fighting, one undressing, another seated at barred window. 1917. Lithograph

He said British people concentrate too much on Germany's Nazi history and too little on its arts and culture.

On being asked by an audience member about a Brexit poster that mentioned "zee Germans", the historian said the analogy of Hitler with the European Union as "preposterous".

Mr MacGregor added:"The other thing of course is a total failure to consider our history in the same way, and look at the aspects of British history that need to be re-examine before we are complaining and accuse other countries of aggressive behaviour.

"It rings quite strangely to the rest of the world to hear Britain complaining of other countries aggressively invading anywhere."