8 May 1945 – the End of War in Europe
After two weeks of fierce and costly street fighting between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army, the Berlin garrison surrendered on 2 May 1945. Around 80,000 Soviet and more than 90,000 German soldiers werekilled in the battle for the Reich capital alone. On 7 May, the unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht took place in Reims, France. For it to come into force, however, it had to be signed by the commanders-in-chief of the individual branches of the armed forces – the army, air force and navy. This took place on 8 May 1945 at the Soviet headquarters in Berlin-Karlshorst. The Second World War in Europe was over. The continent lay in ruins. Around 40 million soldiers and civilians – including up to 27 million from the Soviet Union – had died violently since the German attack on Poland on 1 September 1939. The majority of Germans did not see 8 May as a day of liberation from National Socialism, but as a day of defeat and collapse.
Berlin, 2 May 1945: At around seven in the morning, Soviet photographer Yevgeny Khaldei (1917 – 1997) climbed onto the roof of the Reichstag building and took a photograph that became the epitome of the Red Army's victory in the Great Patriotic War. The captured watches on the Red Army soldier's wrist were later retouched.
picture alliance / ZB / Agentur Voller Ernst, 20082462
Berlin-Tiergarten, 2 May 1945: Antoni Jabłoński (1918 – 2015), a corporal in the 2nd Polish Army, raises the Polish national flag on the Victory Column. Polish units were also fighting in the ranks of the Red Army, as on all fronts in Europe.
Polska Agencja Prasowa
Berlin-Mitte, 6 May 1945: City commander General Helmuth Weidling (1891 – 1955) leaves the bunker of the Reich Chancellery on Voss-Straße. The photo is a re-enactment. Weidling actually signed the surrender of the Berlin garrison on 2 May in the command post of the commander of the 8th Soviet Guards Army, General Vasily Chuikov (1900 – 1982), at Tempelhof Schulenburgring 2. Weidling died as a prisoner of war in the central prison of the Russian city of Vladimir.
akg images, AKG75014
Reims, 7 May 1945: Colonel General Alfred Jodl (1890 – 1946), Chief of the German Wehrmacht Joint Staff, signs the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht.
National Museum of American History
Flensburg, 23 May 1945: After Hitler's suicide on 30 April 1945, Karl Dönitz establishes a caretaker government on 2 May 1945. After their arrest, British soldiers present Dönitz, Jodl and Reich Minister Albert Speer (1905 – 1981) to the world press.
Imperial War Museum, London, Photo correspondent: Edward George William Malindine (1906 – 1970), No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, BU 6711