She described her meeting with the families as"very open and blunt,"adding that it"revealed the weaknesses that our government showed in such a situation."

In the families'letter,first published in the leading German weeklyDer Spiegel,the relatives complained about the cold-hearted letters they received from government workers in response to their complaints about challenges they faced coping with lives altered by the attack.

"Ms Chancellor,the attack on the Breitscheid Square is a tragic result of the lack of political action of your government,"they wrote.

The survivors and victims'relatives complained about the authorities'letting Amri slip through their fingers,the chaotic response immediately following the attack and what they saw as a lack of financial compensation for their losses.

But above all,their anger was directed at Merkel.

The day after the attack,she and other government representatives attended a memorial service to honour the victims. But at that time,many of their families said they were still waiting for confirmation that their loved ones had been killed. Several weeks later,in January,Joachim Gauck,then the German President,invited the families to the presidential palace for a personal meeting.

From Merkel,however,they heard nothing,the letter said:"Regarding how we as survivors were treated,we have to say,Ms Chancellor,that nearly one year after the attack,you have not offered your condolences,either personally or in writing."

In March,the government appointed a former governor,Kurt Beck,to represent the interests of the families and help them to deal with paperwork needed to apply for compensation. He was also asked to draw up a report for the government with recommendations for improvements,many of which addressed the survivors'complaints.

"I don't think there was any ill intent,but my impression is that none of us,not society and not the government,were spiritually prepared for the reality that such an attack could take place in Germany,"Beck said of the government's handling of the situation,in an interview with ZDF television.

The assault on the popular Christmas market brought home to Germans the reality that as part of Europe they,too,are a target for mass terrorist attacks. Until that time,Belgium and France had been the primary European targets. The assault also bolstered critics of Merkel's open-door immigration policy of 2015 who said it added to the country's vulnerabilities.

But with attacks happening elsewhere in Europe,critics of Germany's response could compare how other countries had managed the aftermath. Many looked to France,for example,where more than 1 million people heeded the call to take to the streets in a demonstration of solidarity after an attack in January 2015 left 17 people dead.

Another point of comparison was compensation for survivors. While the involvement of a vehicle in the Berlin attack allowed survivors to tap into a fund that compensates victims of traffic accidents,Beck said the amounts offered were still too low.

He recommended increasing the compensation in ways similar to the system used in France,where a fund for victims of terrorism was created in 1986 after a wave of terrorist attacks in the 1980s. It is funded largely by taxes on property insurance contracts.

New York Times