VE Day

(Above) 155mm Howitzer V-E Day - May 8th, 1945

Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day or VE Day) was May 7/8, 1945, the date when the Allies during World War II formally celebrated the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.

At 02:41 on the morning of, May 7, 1945, at the SHAEF headquarters in Rheims, France, the Chief-of-Staff of the German Armed Forces High Command, General Alfred Jodl, signed the unconditional surrender documents for all German forces to the Allies. All active operations were to cease at 23:01 Central European Time on May 8 1945.

By 8 May 1945, most of Germany had already been taken by allied forces. Hence V-E day itself was not such a drastic change for most German civilians. In the years after, V-E day was predominantly perceived as the day of defeat. But over the decades, this perception changed, culminating in the speech by West German President Richard von Weizsäcker on the 40th anniversary of V-E day in 1985, in which he called 8 May "the day of liberation" from the Nazi government.