Nicolas Offenstadt, historian: "May 8 is far from having a peaceful memory"
On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Nazi surrender, historian Nicolas Offenstadt, a columnist for L'Humanité, looks back at what this date symbolizes across several dimensions.
On May 8, we celebrated the 80th anniversary of May 8, 1945, the day of the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. Why is this date, which signifies the end of fighting in Europe, and thus the end of six years of untold destruction and suffering, so deeply anchored in our collective memory and celebrated every year?
It signifies the end of Nazi barbarity and the war it triggered. Therefore, it has an immediate international aspect; it can concern all the populations that were its victims, all the nations that were affected by the war, even if different dates are chosen for the commemoration of the end of the war, even if it is far from being a consensus .
Was May 8, 1945, a turning point, a date of escape from barbarism and a move towards hope and humanist construction, which are embodied in the program of the National Council of...
L'Humanité
