Friday is a one-off holiday that will only be marked in Berlin
BERLIN, May 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Berliners have been given an unprecedented public holiday on Friday, to mark the end of World War Two but also liberation from Nazi rule.
Not since reunification has a German city acknowledged May 8 as a day of liberation and some Berliners are unaware of the date’s significances.
A street party and several events have been cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The holiday is one-off and is not being held outside Berlin.
But there are growing calls for a public holiday to be held across Germany.
For some, particularly in areas of the old West Germany, May 8 has long been associated with defeat in World War Two. Many families preferred to draw a veil over the period, both those who had suffered persecution as well as those who hadn’t.
In the areas of the old communist East Germany, May 8 was taught as “Day of Liberation” from the Nazi regime by the victorious Red Army. Post-war Berlin itself was divided into four sectors – the Soviets in the east and the US, French and British in the west.
In the latter years of the West German state, the date was also seen as marking liberation from the Nazi regime but nowadays more significantly as the rebirth of democracy.
The only national public holiday currently marking German history is Oct 3, which celebrates the date of reunification in 1990.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will lay wreaths at Berlin’s memorial for victims of war and tyranny.
Talk to Berliners and many will not see the significance of May 8 as the end of the war, or even the surrender of Nazi Germany. Many only found out this week that Friday was a public holiday.
The day is being widely covered by German media, in an attempt to portray the broad array of experiences that Germans had as the war came to an end. — NNN-AGENCIES
