If today the May 8 represents a simple holiday for many, you must not forget its history. It represents the victory of the Allied armies in Europe in 1945. After 5 years of combat on the European continent, the Nazi troops who defended Berlin capitulate against the allies (China, United States, United Kingdom, USSR and France) on May 2, 1945.
To act the end of the fighting, the Chief of the WEHRMACHT staff ratifies an act of capitulation on the night of May 6 to 7 in Reims. The fighting must stop on May 8 at 11:01 p.m. but Stalin wanted the cessation of the fighting to be signed in Berlin, a city fallen in the hands of the Red Army. In addition, the act signed in Reims was signed militarily, which did not suit the head of the government of the USSR either.
But the signature in France had already started to be relayed by journalists, which precipitated the ratification of the new act of capitulation. It is therefore done on May 8 at 11:01 p.m. by representatives of the German high command in the presence of representatives of the USSR, the United States, the United Kingdom and France.
One day not always a holiday
May 8 was not always a holiday. On May 7, 1946, a law fixed on May 8 as a commemoration date of the end of the war in Europe if it fell on a Sunday, in which case, it will be celebrated on the first Sunday following.
-It was not until March 20, 1953 that a new law will make this holiday at the request of the former deportees and resistant. But on April 11, 1959, with the aim of a Franco-German reconciliation, it was decreed that the May 8 will no longer be a holiday. A commemoration is celebrated on the second Sunday of the month.
On January 17, 1968, May 8 again became the date of commemoration.
From 1975 to 1981, we no longer celebrate 8-May. We pay tribute on May 9 to the speech of Robert Schuman, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, who is the precursor of the European Union. It was not until October 2, 1981 that on May 8 was a holiday, in addition to being restored as a commemoration day in memory of the end of the Second World War in Europe and its fighters.
