May 8, 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe, or VE Day, the day Nazi Germany signed the instrument of surrender, bringing a formal end to World War Two in Europe. In Russia, Victory Day is celebrated on May 9, because of the time difference.
The death, on April 12, 1945, of President Roosevelt was for Adolf Hitler his last shot of adrenaline. The Fuehrer’s world had been crumbling all around him, unrelentingly, as he lay holed up in his bunker under the Reich Chancellery. And he now clutched at Roosevelt’s death with the demented fury of the addict who has stumbled upon a cache of his favourite drug by chance.
Waving a newspaper clipping at Albert Speer, his minister of armaments, Hitler announced that this was ‘the miracle’ he had always predicted; that Harry Truman, Roosevelt’s successor, would gladly sign for peace with Hitler and that would be the end of all of Germany’s troubles.
