On the evening of May 4th 1945, 80 years ago, the Danish journalist Johannes G. Sørensen was making his daily report on the BBC for Nazi-occupied Denmark. At 20.35 he made a sudden pause while announcing the news, and then gave the happy message: “I dette øjeblik meddeles det, at Montgomery har oplyst, at de tyske tropper i Holland, Nordvesttyskland og i Danmark har overgivet sig”.
People all over the occupied countries went out to celebrate the liberation after five years of war. It was not all peaceful for the next weeks and months as troops had to be disarmed and many people sought revenge on Germans and collaborators.
That said, the announcement was a special moment, and many years ago I asked my now-deceased Grandmother how they had experienced it.
She said they had heard it on the radio and they all went out on the street in the small village of Paarup to celebrate. But her most touching story happened the next day when she went along with the local milkman to a nearby German base situated on the hills of Funder. As they arrived to the base they were stopped by two German guards on duty. “What are you doing here? Don’t you know the war has ended?”
The Germans threw away their weapons and their uniforms in celebration and hugged one another.
Germany had lost the war, but as everyone they were men who wanted the nightmare of the war to end and return to their families in Germany.
The following weeks thousands and thousands of German soldiers marched south on their way home down Hovedvej 13, past the Dairy where my Grandfather worked. Defeated but happy to have survived and go home to a Germany that was completely destroyed, but hoping to see their families alive.
80 years later it remains important to keep remembering the message of liberation,because today new threats against our freedom and peace are arising.
