Victory in Europe 75th Anniversary Commemoration

At 10:30 a.m., Friends will join the U.S. Department of Defense in co-presenting a very special virtual V-E Day 75th Anniversary Commemoration. You can visit defense.gov to learn more. And, please be sure to tune in!

At 11:30 a.m., The Arsenal of Democracy commemoration flyover will release an online video tribute, Victory in Europe – V-E Day 75 Years Later on their website.

And, at 12:30 p.m., we’ll be streaming live online from the National World War II Memorial in Washington, DC, where we’ll be joining the National Park Service in presenting wreaths at the “Freedom Wall,” a field of 4,048 sculpted gold stars each representing 100 American military deaths during WWII in memory of all Americans and Allies who served and sacrificed during the war.

And later in the afternoon, we'll be showcasing a video tribute to our European Allied Nations.

Throughout the day, the Friends of the National World War II Memorial will be sharing on our social media channels, videos we’ve collected from WWII veterans and others reminiscing and reflecting on V-E Day. Please take a few minutes to watch these special tributes.

You can join us online only via our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/WWIIMemorialFriends/

We can’t be together at the World War II Memorial, but we can still mark this important moment in world history 75 years ago.

Despite the necessity to social distance and stay at home as much as possible right now, Friends still wanted to ensure that every World War II veteran and all the families of those who served and sacrificed, knows that we remember them.

On May 8th, we remember the estimated 15 to 20 million people that died during the war in Europe, the 60 million people lost worldwide, including 400,000 Americans, during the deadliest military conflict in human history.

They are not forgotten.

On May 8, 1945, following the signing of Germany’s unconditional surrender the day before, hostilities in Europe officially ceased. After many years of conflict and immense bloodshed, World War II in Europe finally came to a close on the day that came to be known as “Victory in Europe” Day, or VE Day.

On December 11, 1941, just four days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, pulling the nation into a war in Europe that promised to be a long and bloody conflict. For over two years, World War II had already been raging. Germany occupied many nations across the continent, from Poland and Norway to Belgium and France, and the remaining Allied nations—Great Britain and the Soviet Union—resisted further German expansion. The U.S. had already been supplying Allied nations with much-needed war materiel to fight German forces in Europe and the Mediterranean for years, but now American troops were following these supplies onto the battlefield.

After months of hard fighting across Europe and Africa, the Allies finally began to achieve success and push Axis forces into retreat. By the fall of 1943, Fascist Italy surrendered, yet German forces, who still reinforced “Fortress Europe,” still stood in the way of peace. In June 1944, the D-Day invasion of Normandy broke through Germany’s Atlantic defenses and established a toehold for Allied forces to begin fighting for France’s liberation. By the end of August, after weeks of bloodshed, Paris was liberated, and Allied forces then turned to free other occupied nations like Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. By early 1945, Allied nations reached Germany’s western border, crossing the Rhine into Germany on March 7. The determined push into the heart of the German Fatherland was slow yet steady, as the Allies encountered German forces not yet willing to give up the fight. As they pushed into Germany, Allied forces encountered scenes of unspeakable horror and human suffering in Nazi concentration camps, all of which gave new meaning to the war.

By spring 1945, victory in Europe was nearly reached. On April 25, American and Soviet forces met on the Elbe River at Torgau, a symbolic victory that cut the remaining German forces in two. Meanwhile, Soviet forces continued their bitter siege of Berlin as German troops and civilians resisted block by block. With his capital in ruins, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker on April 30, and Berlin fell two days later. Although limited German resistance continued across parts of Germany for another week, the remaining German leaders under the direction of Hitler’s successor—Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz—were negotiating peace at the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Reims, France. Led by General Alfred Jodl, the German High Command offered to surrender all forces fighting in Western Europe. However, General Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, insisted on the surrender of all German forces in both the east and west, threatening to break off negotiations and leave the remaining German forces to the Soviets. After receiving authorization from Dönitz, on May 7, 1945, General Jodl signed the unconditional surrender of all German forces, to take effect the following day. The war in Europe officially came to an end on May 8, which came to be known as “Victory in Europe” Day, or “V-E Day.” Following Germany’s surrender, V-E Day was marked around the world as a holiday with public celebrations and addresses. Others used the day to reflect on loved ones who had been lost in the conflict. In the east, some skirmishes between German and Soviet forces continued sporadically until a similar document was signed in Berlin between the two nations on May 9.

After nearly six years of bloodshed, the war in Europe was finally over. An estimated 15-20 million people died in the war in Europe. V-E Day was not the end of the world war, since Japanese forces still fought on. Nevertheless, in Europe, the war had come to an end, and the people of Europe could at last turn their attention to rebuilding their nations, their cities, and their daily lives in peace.