Don, I think you forgot this day. Perhaps bigger in the UK than here in the US.
Peter

I'm sure the Brits take it seriously as they were in it on the homefront. Heaven knows we lost a lot of our own boys + that's still a great tragedy but we never had to experience the bombing of our cities + the death count of civilians as the U.K. did. On a somewhat lighter note, my mother in law (passed now at 102) was staying with us a few years ago + we were watching the History channel on a WW2 program + this sweet little old lady says "You know, that Hitler fellow sure started a bunch of mischief."

Not just a few of us that were around then are gratefully here today.

They really were "The Greatest Generation."

8 May is a National Holiday in France (as is 11 November). Commemorative ceremonies were discrete this year given the ban on large gatherings.

My father had been in combat for 45 days. The 97th Infantry had just liberated the Sudetenland when Hitler cashed in.

I liked that line in "Band Of Brothers" where one guy reading the "Stars + Stripes says, well looks like Hitler killed himself + another guy says, why the hell didn't he do it 4 years ago?

Probably long forgotten in the USA is that DeValera went to the German embassy in Eire to extend his personal condolence, and the condolences of the Irish government to the German people on the death of Adolph Hitler!

"Perhaps the most controversial episode of De Valera's epic career took place in 1945 when – in light of Ireland's neutrality and independent foreign policy during the just-completed Second World War – he, as prime minister, extended his condolences to the vanquished German people over the death of Nazi dictator and architect of the Holocaust Adolf Hitler.

On May 2, 1945, just two days after Hitler and his consort Eva Braun committed suicide in their Berlin bunker, De Valera, who also served as foreign minister, and his aide, Secretary of External Affairs Joseph Walshe, visited the German Embassy in Dublin to sign a book of condolences for the departed Fuhrer. They also met with the top German envoy to Ireland, Eduard Hempel. Irish envoys in other nations did likewise, including Leopold Kerney in Spain, who called on the German Embassy in Madrid to express his condolences."

Eire was independent and neutral in WW 2.

Peter

When I was a kid visiting family in Germany we went to Nuremberg where my Oncle Jacob + Tante Rita lived. I remember her telling us that when Hitler was in power the streets were safe; the littlest old lady could walk the darkest alley without fear; there was no crime. Selective memory I suppose. God help you if you were ANYTHING but a true Aryan, + no guarantees even then. She kept her cherished party lapel disc + gave it to my mother but it has been lost over the years. Probably valuable today; Mox-Nix.

Mussolini came to power because he promised that the trains would run on time! They did!
Peter

That's true. Helluva claim to fame though, ain't it?