May 7, 2024, marks the 79th anniversary of an understated declaration from General Dwight David Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces.
The top-secret telegram announced the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany one week after Adolf Hitler’s suicide. There was no bluster, triumphalism or jingoism in the cable. The words were spare, direct and to the point.
The mission of this Allied Force was fulfilled at 0241, local time, May 7, 1945.
The most destructive war in European history was over. Ancient cities were turned to rubble, and nearly 80 million people were dead around the world.
When the war ended and peace fell, there was one overwhelming commitment among the survivors, which included people like John F. Kennedy, George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Elie Wiesel and multitudes more. It was “NEVER AGAIN.”
There are very few survivors from World War II who are still alive nearly 80 years after its end. The very youngest of them are nearly 100 years old. Before very long, there will be an obscure newspaper story somewhere that makes note that the last Allied combat veteran has passed away, and then the last survivor of a Nazi death camp. After that, the most important events in the history of humanity will fade into history, and then into the thick black murk of forgetfulness.
Even now, within the span of a human lifetime of history’s most momentous events the lessons seem inaccessible and hard to grasp. They shouldn’t be, yet here we are.
This is a subject I write about often. Here is a sampling:
“Never again” should be more than words.
Americans should remember this day, and ponder the promises of this man: Trump. There is nothing new or original about this venomous man. There is nothing funny, and there is nothing good. When we can no longer remember the price of ignoring danger, we forget what danger looks like. It numbs us to our own survival, and that is when the furies gather.
Tomorrow, we will celebrate V-E Day.
It is extraordinary to live in an era during which an overwhelming percentage of the country probably thinks that I just misspelled the day we celebrate as “Venereal Disease Day.”
This is The Warning.
Absolutely Steve, we should remember this day! That’s why it amazes me why we Americans do not as a whole remember it. I’m especially amazed if those Americans WHO are “baby boomers “ whose parents or other family members served in WWII
My dad fought in Europe in WWII. Though I miss him every day, I'm glad he did not live to see the rise in fascism here and around the glibe. His stories of fighting the Nazis have turned out to be meaningful and inspirational in ways I never imagined they'd be.