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https://www.rferl.org/a/pictures-of-pure-joy-in-allied-countries-on-ve-day-1945/30599539.html
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/07/magazine/ve-day-anniversary.html
https://www.dw.com/en/ve-day-germany-europe-world-war-ii-anniversary-live-updates/live-72465894
https://ve80.com/
21:00 CET: The Wehrmacht issues their last report over the radio.
[Subtitles in link]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kS4PZlF_BM
The Guernsey Star has its priorities in order as it announces liberation. Indeed, flotillas of supplies are on the way. In the meantime, crowds gather around the Pomme d’Or Hotel in Jersey - former Kriegsmarine HQ - where the swastika is taken down and replaced with the Union Flag by troops who have just landed. The event has been delayed several times; this time because the troops were prevented from moving forwards by crowds of Jersey women hugging and kissing them.
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Morning: Vidkun Quisling, Nazi-appointed leader of Norway, turns himself in at Møllergata 19 police station. He has lived to see his name become a word for traitor; he believes that "in ten years' time I will have become another Saint Olav."
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07:14 local time: The tiny Channel Islands, off the coat of France, have remained under Nazi occupation despite their close proximity to Normandy, where Allied landings took place last year. Major-General Heine (centre) signs their surrender.
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10:31 local time: Churchill, probably somewhat drunker, appears again on the Ministry of Health balcony, conducting singing of "Land of Hope and Glory."
The Guardian reports his interaction with the crowd:
"...There we stood alone. did anybody want to give in?"
The crowd roared back a terrific "No."
"Were we downhearted?" asked the Premier.
"No," came back the answer.
Mr. Churchill: "The lights went out---." There was a great burst of laughter at this, because the floodlighting of the balcony from which he was speaking had been turned off shortly before his appearance.
There is widespread relief within the Allied lines. One British Corporal reported "instant relief – no wild cheering or running about. It was a case of thank God it’s all over and we were safe at last. We had nothing to celebrate with anyway, just compo tea and normal rations. It was if you’d had an exhausting day and you flop down in a chair at the end of it."
In the Soviet zone, however, there is widespread looting and rape, a fact that will stain the Soviet army in future.
16:00 local time: The Evening Standard is published, with the following illustration by David Low - known best for his cartoons drawn during the darkest days of the war.
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9:00 local time: President Truman announces the surrender of Germany.
"I only wish that Franklin D. Roosevelt had lived to witness this day."
12.30 CET: President Karl Dönitz announces the capitulation of Germany. Having very much supported the war, he nonetheless voices his hope that "our children will have a free and secure existence in a peaceful Europe."
[Subtitles in link]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8tXt0buPbA
Morning: in the Algerian town of Sétif, local Muslims come out to celebrate the end of the war. However, French colonial police take issue with them carrying pro-independence banners. Clashes break out.
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29th April 1945: Dachau is liberated by the US Army. It contains 30,000 living prisoners, of whom about a third are very sick.
Dachau was originally built close to Munich to contain political prisoners such as socialists, communists, and other anti-fascists, before moving to other "undesirables". It gradually grew to massive proportions, with over 100 sub-camps over a system covering many miles.
It was primarily concerned with forced labour. About 41,500 people died there.
Wolfgang Sofsky commented on Dachau that "in the span of twelve years, the concentration camp metamorphosed from a locus of terror into a universe of horror."
19 April 1775: a battle breaks out on Lexington Green between the British and American militia, after an unknown party fires the first shots. This becomes the first battle of the American War of Independence, and continues a bloody breakdown of order in the 13 Colonies.
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The last surviving veteran of the Battle of Britain, Paddy Hemingway, has died aged 105. He piloted a Hurricane during the Battle of France and then during the Battle of Britain, a period when Britain has its back to the wall and Nazi Germany was seeking to destroy the R.A.F. in order to prepare for an invasion.
He had to bailout of his aircraft twice in one month at the height of the battle, seeing intense and vicious dogfights. Hemingway, who was Irish, was one of many pilots who were not of British nationality.
The momentousness of this battle, combined with the relatively small number of airmen fighting in it, caused Winston Churchill to remark that "never in the field of human conflict, was so much owed, by so many, to so few." Later, these airmen would come to be known simply as "The Few." Hemingway, the last of The Few, always regretted the loss of his friends who died during those few pivotal months in 1940.
International Women's Day: we congratulate you, dear women!
(Naum Lisogorsky, USSR, 1963)
Thank you for your attention to this live account of VE Day and the day afterwards.
Europe and the world begins to enter the post-war era. However, there is still much to be done. The war with Japan looks likely to grind on for a long time; even with their cities firebombed, the Japanese government stubbornly holds out. Europe is starkly divided between East and West. Some Allied commanders are even considering "Operation Unthinkable:" an assault against the Soviet Union...
In spite of widespread expressions of joy, it is noted that many people in the west are actually quite sad. People obviously do not want to be bombed and terrorised again, but there it is possible that the end of a shared community struggle prompts a sort of melancholy - something known also to the many soldiers, who are aware their time with their comrades is coming to an end.
Europe is in ruins, rationing is still in place, and it is clear the old world is dead. It is time to win the peace...
There is some confusion in Slovenia. Alexander Löhr, commander of Army Group E, has surrendered. However, he seems to have escaped, and his troops are disobeying the order. He is making his way towards Austria. An intense manhunt begins.
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Stutthof concentration camp is liberated by the Red Army. About 100 people survive; most of the others have been taken away on death marches. It is the last concentration camp to be liberated.
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11:00 local time: Josef Stalin announces that "the Great Patriotic War has concluded."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqFx4fdOgHU
22:43 CET: The German Instrument of Surrender is signed in the Karlshorst in Berlin. Wilhelm Keitel (pictured) signs for the Wehrmacht. A previous signing took place earlier in France, but it was not recognised by the Soviets, who wanted it to be in Berlin.
Keitel has barely half a year to live before he will be executed by the Allies; a threat he is probably aware of.
Evening: Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring is now firmly in American captivity. He is in a state of drug-induced delusion, believing that he can negotiate with the Allies and that he might be a post-war leader.
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Evening: in probably the most visible and excitable celebration of any of the leaders, Churchill appears on the Ministry of Health building in central London and gives an unprepared speech. God bless you all,' he told them, 'This is your victory!' he declares, to which the crowd roars back, 'No - it is yours!" Unbeknownst to him, they will vote him out in just a few months.
Famously, as crowds celebrate around Buckingham Palace, the young princesses - including future Queen Elizabeth II - anonymously mingle.
15:00 local time: Winston Churchill announces the surrender of Germany. He immediately gets into his car and drives down Whitehall, but is mobbed by crowds.
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General De Gaulle addresses the French nation. "La guerre est gagnée! Voici la Victoire! C’est la Victoire des Nations Unies et c’est la Victoire de la France!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-RNKykB7Nk
It is VE Day's 80th anniversary. I will live post a few of the events that took place that day.
https://www.defense.gov/Multimedia/Experience/VE-Day/
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/lexington-and-concord-shot-heard-round-world
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Many of Lisogorsky's cartoons made fun of what he saw as Western hypocrisy.
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Though initially showing some enthusiasm for the promise of the Nazi regime, the Scholls gradually became disillusioned. In 1936 Hans vocally defended Hitler in front of his father and became a flagbearer at the annual Nuremburg Rally, but was disappointed by the restrictive attitude of his superiors.
Sophie, who had lost faith in the regime by 1939, was turned actively against it by her boyfriend, soldier Fritz Hartnagel, who told her of atrocities against civilians in the east.
Christoph wished for an honourable peace and joined the White Rose alongside Hans and Sophie.
Betrayed by caretaker Jakob Schmid, who received 3,000 marks, the trio were inevitably sentenced to death. The guards at their prison were taken aback by their courage and dignity, to the extent that they allowed the prisoners to have a final cigarette together, an unprecedented liberty.
They were executed by guillotine. Their friends Alexander Schmorell (25), Willi Graf (25), and Kurt Huber (49) were murdered later that year.