#may 1945

[theworldatwar]

German helmets and various pieces of equipment lay abandoned in the street - Soest, Netherlands, 10th May 1945

[lifewithaview]

Viola Prettejohn and Beau Gadsdon in The Crown (2016) Ritz

S6E8

After a series of strokes, a declining Margaret recalls a wild night with her sister at the Ritz in 1945, and later celebrates her 70th birthday there.

*The aria playing while Margaret suffers her second stroke is 'Sempre Libera' from Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata. In it, the soprano sings about how she will resist her impulses to change her ways, which Margaret has just done.

[vintage-russia]

Glory to the Soviet troops who hoisted the banner of victory over Berlin!

Brandenburg Gate,Berlin (1945)

[theamericanpin-up]

Earl Moran - May 1945 Men of Letters Calendar Illustration - Brown & Bigelow Calendar Co. - American Pin-up Calendar Collection

[oshaskell]

downtime with your CO

[theglitterdome]

Vintage Love

On this day... May 21, 1945 Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall were married.

[lonestarbattleship]

USS TEXAS (BB-35) undergoing post-operation repairs and maintenance while in San Pedro Bay, Leyte Gulf, Philippines. On her bow, a stage is set up for the road show performance of Oklahoma! for the crew's entertainment.

Date: May 17-22, 1945

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department: 2003-1012-52

[vox-anglosphere]

Two teenage princesses slipped into the roaring crowd unnoticed. After six years of blackouts, it was a night of unsurpassed jubilation.

[ellis-ofwoolworth]

are. are you telling me that the captain knew havers for TWO MONTHS and they both fell head over heels for each other? like they got to the commiting crimes stage of the relationship after knowing eachother for two months and then not seeing the other for five years?? me and who, man

[soon-palestine]

Remember..

In one day, France killed 45,000 Algerians on this day, May 8, 1945

This did not happen in one day, but the killing continued for weeks. But it began on the day the Algerian flag was raised in demonstrations celebrating the end of World War II, which aroused the ire of the colonial authorities

[historicalsnail]

When you're a guy who died in May but you wanna be vague about it.

[theworldatwar]

US soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division pose for a photograph in Berchtesgaden, Germany - May 1945

[iceman-kazansky]

HAPPY 79TH VE DAY!!

On May 8th 1945, German forces surrendered, bringing an end to the european side of World War Two. Worldwide, celebrations commenced. Today marks the 79th anniversary of Victory in Europe (or VE) day.

[nesiacha]

8 may 1945 in Algeria

May 8, 1945, is a day of glory for many countries in Europe, rightly so. Nazism has finally been defeated, and it was a relief. But in Algeria, it is a day of national mourning. On that day, the Algerian people took to the streets to demand the release of Messali Hadj, leader of the PPA ( Parti du peuple algérien ), considered at that time one of the most important figures in Algerian independence, a better equality between French people and algerian people, a true vote and not rigged in favor of the settlers. After all, a lot Algerians had participated in the liberation, so why not grant all their demands? Protesters were asked not to display the Algerian flag, but a young man named Bouzid Saâl proudly waved the Algerian flag. A policeman shot him, and he died. Other demonstrations were also brutally suppressed. For example, in Guelma, the deputy prefect Achiary took advantage of the situation to arrest a large number of Algerians, torture them, or kill them. This was followed by a crackdown around Setif in Constantine, where a peasant uprising resulted in around a hundred deaths (of pieds noirs). This led to another disproportionate repression against Algerians, lasting over a month, during which the deaths of these pieds noirs served as a convenient pretext for further repression. In addition to the army, colonial militias participated in the killings, arbitrary arrests were commonplace, and there were even places in Guelma where Algerians were burned alive. The famous writer Kateb Yacine, then a high school student, was arrested while participating in a demonstration, beaten, and several members of his family were killed. Duval would later claim that he gave France peace for 10 years, which is prophetic because many disillusioned Algerians, rightly angered by this umpteenth injustice, inequality, discriminatory laws, and daily repressions, would eventually join the Algerian revolution that began in 1954. De Gaulle, who was in power, approved of everything Papon ( Papon who after having persecuted Jews in France by adopting anti-Semitic decrees, is preparing to do the same thing in Algeria)and Achiary did (it is even possible that de Gaulle gave the orders, because at least he approve them).

This is one of the reasons why I am among those French who do not admire him. Stalin was rightly vilified, but de Gaulle and Churchill escaped such condemnation (you can also see what de Gaulle did in Cameroon to be horrified). What I mean is that as someone who has fought against all double standards, I totally disapprove of the killings of civilian pieds noirs, but we often forget that the colonized were much more massively killed and in total indifference. For the entire French political class, May 8, 1945, is clearly not one of their finest moments (to put it mildly).

A film that illustrates this, although it is very harsh and not subtitled, is the film Heliopolis; even I cried a lot at the end, and the very realistic massacre is based on images from that time.

[culturefrancaise]

[federer7]

Place du Bourg-Tibourg, Paris 4e, 8 mai 1945

Photo: Jean-Philippe Charbonnier