VE Day
VE-Day is an abbreviation for Victory in Europe Day ( English literally for " Victory in Europe Day ") and describes May 8, 1945 as the end of the Second World War in Europe . In the Federal Republic of Germany the term "end of war" has become common. In many European countries, May 8th is celebrated as Liberation Day. In some countries like France , the Czech Republic and Slovakia it is a public holiday .
About three months later, after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the unconditional surrender of the Japanese Empire took place . With the " Imperial Decree to End the Greater East Asian War" ( Gyokuon-hōsō ), which was broadcast on Japanese radio on August 15, 1945, the Pacific War ended and with it the Second World War. The name Victory over Japan Day was coined for this day .
During the negotiations at the headquarters of the allied armed forces ( SHAEF ) in Reims on May 7, the unconditional surrender of all German armed forces was agreed and contractually signed there. May 8, 11:01 p.m. was set as the time for the cessation of all fighting in Europe.
For reasons of protocol, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces countersigned the declaration of surrender late in the evening of May 8th at the Soviet headquarters in Berlin-Karlshorst (today the German-Russian Museum ) . This dragged on until shortly after midnight. Since the German surrender was only announced afterwards in Moscow , May 9th is celebrated as Victory Day in the Soviet Union and its successor states .
In the GDR , May 8th was a public holiday from 1950 to 1966, 1975 and 1985 as the day of liberation .
A partial surrender by the Wehrmacht for north-west Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands was declared to the British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery on May 4, 1945 on the Timeloberg near Wendisch Evern , which came into force the following day at 8 a.m.
The Netherlands celebrates Bevrijdingsdag on May 5th . On this day in 1945 the Canadian General Charles Foulkes and the German Commander-in-Chief Johannes Blaskowitz negotiated in the presence of Prince Bernhard as commander of the domestic armed forces in the ruins of the largely bombed Hotel de Wereld in Wageningen about the surrender of the Wehrmacht units in the still occupied part of the Netherlands. Blaskowitz asked for 24 hours to think about it. On May 6, 1945 the prepared terms of surrender for the territory of the " Reichskommissariat Netherlands " were signed.
Web links
- 60 years of the end of the war , in: From Politics and Contemporary History (APuZ 18–19 / 2005)
- 60 years of the end of the war - reconstruction plans for the cities by the Federal Agency for Civic Education
- The German Surrender Documents - WWII
- 70 years of the end of the war on the information portal for political education
Remarks
- ↑ Since summer time was in effect in the German Reich , the armistice was actually on May 9th from 0:01 a.m., on this declaration of surrender: The paper that ended the war , Spiegel Online , Panorama , May 8, 2005.