Each year we commemorate Victory in Europe Day, also known as V-E Day. On May 8th 1945, Nazi Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allied Forces of the Second World War. This day in history marked the end of World War II in Europe, although the war would continue in the Pacific Theater of Operations.
V-E will be on Friday, May 8, 2020. V-E Day is recognized as a part of National Military Appreciation Month.
Presidential Proclamation, 1945
The Allied armies, through sacrifice and devotion and with God’s help, have wrung from Germany a final and unconditional surrender. The western world has been freed of the evil forces which for five years and longer have imprisoned the bodies and broken the lives of millions upon millions of free-born men. They have violated their churches, destroyed their homes, corrupted their children, and murdered their loved ones. Our Armies of Liberation have restored freedom to these suffering peoples, whose spirit and will the oppressors could never enslave.
– Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America
Anniversary Events
On the 70th anniversary of V-E Day, May 8th 2015, the Friends of the National World War II Memorial, and the National Park Service held a special Commemoration Ceremony in Washington D.C., in honor of the men and women who served during World War II. The event included a historic military flyover, and a speech by Ambassador Susan Rice, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Meanwhile, members of the British Army’s 1st Battalion Scots Guards Pipes and Drums played “Amazing Grace” and volunteers handed out flowers to veterans at the World War II Memorial.