2025 marks the 80ᵉ anniversary of the Allies’ victory over Nazi Germany.
On this occasion, the 20h of TF1 offers you an exceptional reconstruction, in volumetric video, of the final key moments of the conflict.
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May 8, 1945: The 80th anniversary ceremony of victory on TF1
On the occasion of the commemoration of the victory of May 8, 1945, the 8 p.m. of TF1 invites you to live in immersion the final outcome of the greatest mass killing in history, in a 3D reconstruction of an exceptional realism. In collaboration with the historian Olivier Wieviorka, our journalist Yani Khezzar accompanies you in this journey to the heart of the darkest hours of humanity. Eight minutes which allow us to better understand the epilogue of this world conflict which killed more than 60 million people, or almost 3% of the world’s population of the time.
First key moment in which this spectacular video plunges us back: winter 1944, when it all started to accelerate. We are in Belgium, in the Ardennes massif. Six months after landing in Normandy (new window)the Allies have released France and are traveling to Germany. The Third Reich vacillates. In the hope of thwarting the advance of Allied troops, Adolf Hitler tried a last coup on December 16. Six weeks of fierce battles ensue in which 20,000 men will lose their lives within both camps. A final offensive from which the Reich will not get up. Because at the same time, on the east front, the progression of the Red Army is dazzling.
Two million soldiers and thousands of tanks are on the road towards Germany. As they progress, the troops of the Red Army discover with terror what the Nazis wanted to hide from the world. Concentration and extermination camps, emptied to hide the evidence of extermination.
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80 years of the Allied victory on May 8, 1945: which is planned for commemorations
On April 24, 1945, Soviet troops entered the streets of Berlin to lead the final assault. Clear in his bunker, Hitler shoots himself in the head after swallowing a cyanide capsule. After final negotiations, it was in the middle of the night, on May 7, 1945, at 2:41 a.m., that Nazi Germany signed surrender (new window) unconditionally with the allies.
While Europe is reconnecting with peace, war continues to rage on the other side of the world, where Japanese and Americans compete. On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima’s sky kicked out under the explosion of “Little Boy” (new window). Three days later, Nagasaki suffered the same fate with “Fat Man”. The results amounted to 200,000 dead. The capitulation of Japan will be signed on September 2, 1945.
