These important historical documents include information about the German unconditional surrender; the ceasefire; a night out pass; Thanksgiving for Victory service and a letter from Field-Marshall Montgomery.
Collection of WW2 documents
Contributed by Antiques Roadshow - Chatsworth
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The 8th of May in 1945, the day of the German unconditional surrender, is firstly a day of liberation, not only in a military way, but moreover in an ethical way, a victory for the human being over an evil and humiliating ideology that claims that there is a racial superiority over others that is said to justify more territory.
The 8th of May 1945 is also a victory over these awful aims of tyranny that sought not only for more territory, but also a destruction of other nations.
There has been no other option to stop this tyranny than by violence because there has been no way to come to a sensible agreement with Hitler´s fatalistic and insane attitude that ordered senseless resistance even in the very last days of the war - everyone that resisted to defend German cities had to expect the death penalty.
On the 30th of April 1945 Hitler killed himself. He apparently did this in order to escape the trial and punishment he had to expect when he would have been captured.
He also rejected to take over the responsibility for the biggest and worst war in world history with 55 million people dead, 35 million people wounded and 3 million people missing.
These shocking numbers show the uncredible scale of a human tragedy Germany has been responsible for - mass destruction, concentration camps, acts of violence, deportation and refugees.
West Germany took over this war guilt, East Germany rejected it.
After 60 years of Federal Republic of Germany, from 1949 to 2009, it can be said that this state found its place in an united Europe, leaving this old paradigms of imperalism, totalism and isolation behind.
The world watches carefully how Germany deals with that difficult legacy -the Holocaust Memorial in the heart of the capital alongside the Jewish Museum in Berlin are great expressions and examples of a country that deals in a self-critical way with its awful past!