V-E Day

-E Day stands for Victory in Europe Day, commemorating the unconditional surrender of Germany to Allied forces on May 8, 1945. Adolf Hitler declared that Germany had proved unworthy of him and committed suicide in his Berlin bunker on April 30, 1945. Hitler's successor, Admiral Karl Dönitz, started negotiations with the Western powers, hoping to save as many troops and refugees as possible from Soviet reprisals. But the U.S.S.R. refused to recognize the surrender ceremony at U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower's headquarters on May 7 (the hostilities set to end at one minute past midnight May 9, 1945 - or 9:01pm Eastern on May 8 in the U.S.). A separate German surrender to the USSR was signed and a separate Soviet V-E Day held, in Berlin on May 8 to end the war once and for all.