Fifty years ago, frenzied Israeli demonstrators threw tear gas into their Knesset parliament chamber in protest at a government decision to accept reparation funds from Germany. Thirty-five years ago, Holocaust survivors greeted the arrival of the first German ambassador by donning concentration camp uniforms and brandishing placards that read: "Six Million Times No!"
Twenty years ago, the prime minister, Mr Menachem Begin, castigated the then chancellor, Mr Helmut Schmidt, for German arms sales to Arab states, declaring bitterly that "the Holocaust had slipped his mind . . . He didn't care if Israel went under."
And yet, in that same Knesset chamber on Wednesday, President Johannes Rau of Germany was welcomed by Israel's politicians, and applauded politely after delivering a plea for forgiveness and friendship - without precedent - in German.
Mr Rau was received warmly wherever he went in Israel this week - at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, at a joint forum of young Israelis and Germans, at a festive concert in Jerusalem. And that positive response is the clearest sign yet of how far Israel and Germany have progressed in their delicate process of reconciliation.
Israeli-German ties have endured their share of ups and downs in the decades since the Holocaust - one particular low being the recriminations over the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics. But Germany's readiness to face up to the crimes of the Nazi era - and a desire to make amends that brings more non-Jewish volunteers to Israel each year from Germany than from any other country - have helped foster a unique relationship.
Ties differ sharply from those between Israel and Austria, a country many Israelis feel has never internalised its Holocaust guilt, as evidenced by the rise of Mr Jorg Haider's Freedom Party. Indeed, while Mr Rau gets VIP treatment here, Mr Haider is barred from entering the country. Although Mr Rau's expressions of shame and regret for Nazi crimes are accepted at face value, Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, has dismissed as disingenuous Mr Haider's recent efforts to distance himself from his previous sympathetic attitude to some Third Reich policies.