Photo Gallery: 13 Photos of VE Day, May 8, 1945
As President Obama honors the 70th anniversary of VE Day, these images help capture the mood of that monumental moment in history.
Words this morning from the President Barack Obama on the 70th Anniversary of VE Day:
Seventy years ago today, the Allied Forces declared victory in Europe over tyranny during World War II. After more than five years of brutal fighting that took the lives of some 40 million people across the continent—including six million Jews and millions of others murdered by the Nazi regime—the forces of freedom triumphed over oppression in Europe. The war was not yet won; it would be three more months of fighting in the Pacific. But VE Day represented, at long last, a hope for peace.
Today, we salute the more than 16 million Americans who left everything they knew—their families, their homes—to serve in World War II, and then came home to help build the America we know today. We honor the memory of the more than 400,000 Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice so that we might live free. We rededicate ourselves—on this day and every day—to the freedoms for which they fought, and to the American Dream for which they died. We stand with our allies, in Europe and around the world, in defending the liberty and human rights of all people. And we honor our brave men and women in uniform and their families who continue to defend the freedom that was won 70 years ago today.
We at The Stream also want to commemorate those who served and celebrate the triumph of the Allied Forces and all friends of freedom.
These images help capture some of the hard-earned joy of that dramatic day.
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- British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at a BBC microphone, about to broadcast on the afternoon of VE Day. (Credit: Imperial War Museums)
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- Two young women standing on Saint Catherine Street in Montreal, Canada, read the front page of The Montreal Daily Star. The title “Germany Quit” announces the German surrender and the impending end of World War II in Europe. (Credit: Conrad Poirier/Wikimedia)
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- Crowds gather in Times Square, New York on VE Day. This photo was taken from a newspaper clipping. (Credit: Flickr.com)
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- The King of Britain speaks from London on VE Day. (Credit: Schrøder/Flickr.com)
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- Four MPs take a break along a German road to read in The Stars and Stripes newspaper about the Nazi surrender. (Credit: U.S. Army/Wikimedia)
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- Three small children celebrate in Steinberget, Trondheim, Norway. (Credit: Schrøder/The Municipal Archives of Trondheim)
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- The war in Europe was over, and it was party time in Bristol. There were few communities around the city who did not hold a party for the local children, and this one was organized by the residents of Allington Road, Southville, Bristol. (Credit: Flickr.com)
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- A military parade on Saturday, May 12, 1945, just a few days after VE day. The RAF and WAAF personnel in the photograph are from RAF Rivenhall. Newland Street, Witham, England. (Credit: Flickr.com)
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- Women celebrating VE-Day on Bay Street in Toronto, Canada. (Credit: Alexandra Studios/Wikimedia)
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- Barclay’s Bank on VE Day in Jerusalem, Palestine. (Credit: Matson News Service Photographer/Wikimedia)
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- Victory Day celebration on Elizabeth Street in Sydney, N.S.W. (Credit: State Library of New South Wales)
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- People celebrated the end of the war with street parties and tea parties for children, like this one in the Muller Road area of Eastville. (Credit: Flickr.com)
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- A group of young men and women on the back of a truck in Vancouver, Canada, celebrating VE Day. (Credit: Province Newspaper/Flickr.com)
