Jillian Chantal

Seventy years ago today was Victory in Europe Day. May 8, 1945 was when the Allies accepted Germany’s unconditional surrender. The end of WWII in Europe. We still had a way to go to whip Japan but the European part of the quest for peace was over.

Hitler had killed himself on April 30 and so his successor was the one to actually surrender. Betcha don’t know his name. He got brushed over by history and I often wonder what role he really played in the whole thing (he was a submarine commander) since he was only sentenced to ten years at the Nuremberg trials for war crimes. His name was Karl Donitz. He was president of Germany from April 30, 1945 (appointed so in Hitler’s will) to May 23, 1945. The man always denied any knowledge of what was happening to the Jewish people and said he only dealt with U-boats and the Navy but you have to wonder, don’t you? Being as he was named as successor to Hitler by Hitler himself.

Lots of parties in the streets marked this day in 1945 and who could blame them? The war years took a toll on the people of all the nations and now was the time to begin to move past it and rebuild lives as best they could. Lots of loss of life in this war and most every family was touched by the death of loved ones.

Wars are terrible but it seems mankind can’t stay out of them.  Would that we could.  What a wonderful world it would be.