2023-05-08 17:27:32
Time.news – On 8 May various European countries commemorate the fall of the Nazi regime and therefore the end of the Second World War on the old continent, one of the most violent conflicts in the history of humanity with tens of millions of victims. In reality it is not a single date: the unconditional surrender by the III Reich was signed in two stages, with two distinct signatures and different time zones.
A first capitulation took place in Reims, a city in northeastern France, on 7 May at 2.45 in the night, while the second was signed in the night between 8 and 9 May in Berlin, which is why Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union celebrate victory on May 9.
On the occasion of the May 8 commemoration, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed the hope that “all the evil that Russia brings with it will be defeated in the same way that Nazism was defeated in 1945”.
The first German surrender on May 7, 1945
At a junior high school in the French capital of the Champagne region, rehabilitated into headquarters by US General Dwight D. Eisenhower, German General Alfred Jodl signed the surrender “of all land, naval and air forces which are at this date under the German control”. On the Allied side, that May 7, 1945, were present Walter Bedell Smith, Eisenhower’s chief of staff, the general commander of the artillery Ivan Susloparov, the French general Francois Sevez – who signed as a witness – and Admiral Harold Burrough, commander of allied naval forces.
Immediately the news spread in Western newspapers, but Stalin, furious, refused this first surrender and demanded a second one. He wanted Germany to surrender in its capital, a burning Berlin, after Hitler shot himself in the head on April 30 in his bunker: a symbolic place for Stalin. The Soviet flag flew over the Reichtag, where the last followers of the Fuhrer were killed.
The second surrender between 8 and 9 May
The second surrender therefore took place in a villa in the Berlin district of Karlshorst, on the night between 8 and 9 May 1945. The Soviet Union is represented by Marshal Joukov, the British by the commander in chief of the Royal Air Force Arthur Tedder, the United States by General Spaatz. France sent General de Lattre de Tassigny. When German Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, designated by Karl Doenitz, entered the room, he proclaimed to his amazement: “What? Even the French!”. Indeed, the presence of France at this capitulation is a diplomatic victory for General de Gaulle. Marshal Joukov had tried until the end to do without a French representative, in vain.
When General De Lattre discovered the hall of this meeting, he regretted the absence of a tricolor flag, so one with the colors of France was hastily produced. German Keitel finished unconditionally signing the nine copies of the document just before midnight (at 23:01 to be exact), it was already May 9 in Moscow, which is why Russia celebrates Victory Day on the 9th instead of the 8th .
However in fact, as at the end of the First World War, theGermany did not sign an armistice but a capitulation. Victory in Europe Day is also commemorated on 8 May in the United Kingdom and the United States, but it is not a public holiday. If hostilities ended in Europe, the fighting continued for several months in Asia, where Japan formalized its capitulation in September 1945, after the dropping of the American atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
May 8 in France
In France, 8 May became a public holiday in 1953, but was abolished as such by General de Gaulle on 11 April 1959. The day of commemoration was revived in 1968, but was abandoned in 1975 by President Giscard d’Estaing to promote Franco-German reconciliation. His decision was much criticized at home, and it was only with the law of October 2, 1981, signed by the socialist president Francois Mitterrand, that May 8 was restored as a public holiday. The 9th in France is also celebrated as a reminder of Robert Schuman’s speech on the construction of Europe, as Europe Day.
A debated date in Germany
In 1985, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Richard von Weizsacker, called May 8 “Liberation Day”, transforming a date that had hitherto been shameful with these words.
But due to German responsibility in the Second World War and the division of the national territory in two for 40 years, Germany does not officially celebrate the capitulation of the Nazi regime on May 8, 1945. It is in no way a question of making it a public holiday. and the idea of a commemoration has been debated for many years anyway.
In Austria a controversial “fest of joy”.
In Vienna, Liberation Day and the memory of the victims are commemorated with the “Feast of Joy” (Fest der Freude) organized by the Mauthausen Memorial Committee. Since 2013, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra has held a concert on Heldenplatz for the occasion. The floor is also given to personalities who have suffered the Nazi occupation and bear witness to the experience they underwent. These celebrations sparked controversy, most notably in 2000 during a concert staged in the former Mauthausen concentration camp.
In Belgium, May 8 has not been a public holiday since 1983
May 8 is not celebrated to the same extent in Belgium, as the Germans left the country at the end of 1944. In the following months, the question of the return of the prisoners and the return of the king divided Belgian society. Furthermore, in a logic of European reconciliation, 8 May has not been a public holiday in Belgium since 1983.
However, in 2022, the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region adopted a resolution calling for May 8 to become a paid public holiday, “and that during such a public holiday the democratic values on which the country and the Brussels Region”, explains the RTBF. The issue is still debated, with left-wing political parties arguing, for example, that this date would be a warning sign for the rise of the far right.
In Poland, May 8 has been celebrated since 2015
A legacy of its Soviet past, Poland celebrated Victory Day on 9 May as the official date in Russia, due to the time difference during the German surrender which occurred simultaneously on 8 May 1945 at 23:01 (local time) and the May 9 at 1:01 (Moscow time). On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the post-war Soviet decree was repealed by the Polish Parliamenton April 24, 2015, and replaced by a new law setting the date as May 8.
In the Netherlands and Denmark it is commemorated on 5 May
In the Netherlands, Liberation Day is celebrated on May 5, which is the date of the German surrender talks. This date is not necessarily a holiday. In Denmark, May 5 is also commemorated as Liberation Day from the Nazi yoke, without this date being a public holiday. In Italy, April 25 is the date chosen for the Liberation Day, in memory of the end of the Nazi occupation in several northern cities after the Second World War.
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