May 8: Victory in Europe

Seventy years. It’s been this long since May 8th, 1945, when the Red Army closed in from the east, struck in the heart of Nazi Germany, Berlin, and raised the Red Army flag, signaling the fall of European fascism.

It had taken more than 6 years for the war to end, since the Nazis started annexing and invading lands, following a madman’s nightmarish dream.

The Soviets from the East, the Allies in the West, a pincer against Hitler’s dying wish, crushing it with fire and brimstone. Even though the soldiers were happy, even though the War in the Pacific was still raging, one could not but sit still and examine the scope of this, the Second World War that humanity had seen in half a century. Over fifty million dead, both soldier and civilian, father, brother, mother and child. Financial ruin, lands awash with the blood of the fallen, where soldier killed soldier because some nutcase wanted world supremacy.

But hope, brief yet remembered to this day and forevermore, was in the eyes of both Allied and Red armies, before they came to terms with the new reality they had created which would pit them against each other for decades to come.  VE Day, Victory in Europe was upon them, and they had made it through the hell that had awaited them on the battlefield. Countless lives lost for ideas, as well as ideals. Even heroes still alive today, remembering the sights they had seen back then, even those iron lions forged in the face of adversity, break down and cry over their fallen brothers. For it was a hard-fought Victory, and VE Day is worth remembering.

Happy VE Day. Never forget.