Germany and many other countries are today commemorating the liberation from National Socialism 78 years ago. On 8 May 1945, the Second World War ended in Europe when the German armed forces, the Wehrmacht, surrendered. Most of the concentration camps had been liberated by this time, including Auschwitz by Soviet troops on 27 January 1945 and Buchenwald by the Americans on 11 April 1945. The Second World War cost 60 to 70 million soldiers and civilians their lives. More than six million people were murdered in concentration and extermination camps.
On the fourth anniversary of the surrender, the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany was adopted in Bonn. Nonetheless, the 8th of May was long seen in the Federal Republic as a symbol of defeat and loss. The turning point came when the then German President Richard von Weizsäcker gave a speech on 8 May 1985 in which he described it as a day of liberation and of remembrance. (Fazit/BpB)