By Spring, 1945,the Nazi concentration camps were being uncovered by the advancing American and British armies. Rumors of atrocities against Jews, gypsies, Slavs.and others racially or otherwise ‘undesirable’’ had circulated since the early stages of World War Two.
Nazi Concentration Camps
But the brutalities committed at Auschwitz, Bergen Belsen and Buchenwald were not fully revealed until the camps were liberated. The death camps in Poland were the first to be freed by the Russians at the start of 1945. In April of that year, American troops discovered more camps as they advanced deeper into German territory from the west.
The press coverage, showing pictures of corpses piled high in the camp compounds and skeletal survivors, hollow-eyed and barely alive, shocked cinema audiences and newspaper readers around the world.
On April 19 1945, Winston told the House of Commons, “ No words can express the horror which is felt by his Majesty’s Government and their principal allies at the proofs of these frightful crimes now daily coming into view.”
Suicide and Surrender
World War Two was now fast drawing to its close. On April 30, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker beneath the grounds of the Berlin Chancellery. The Russians, advancing through the shattered streets, were only a few yards away at the time.
A week later, German forces surrendered unconditionally. After twelve years, Hitler’s Third Reich, which he had declared would last a thousand years, had finally gone down in blood, death, flames and ruin.
Under the terms of the German surrender, fighting was to cease at midnight on May 8,, 1945. Jubilant crowds packed the streets of cities and towns all over Britain to celebrate the end of the war.
On the morning of May 8, Winston worked on the victory broadcast he was to deliver that day. He worked in bed - a longstanding habit - but got up after a while and went to the Map Room. He was carrying a bottle of champagne, a large Gruyère cheese and a note addressed to Captain Pim and his staff. The note read, “To Captain Pim and his officers with the Prime Minister’s compliments on Victory Day in Europe”
Victory in Europe Day
That afternoon, Winston made his victory broadcast from Ten Downing Street, the Prime Minister’s London residence,outlining details of the German surrender. In the evening, he appeared with members of his War Cabinet, on the balcony of the ministry of Health building in Whitehall to address the London crowds in person. The roadway and pavements below were jam-packed with people waiting to hear him speak.
“This is your victory!” Winston declared. “It is the victory of the cause of freedom in every land. In all our long history, we have never seen a greater day than this. ...Everyone, man or woman, has done their best... Neither the long years, nor the dangers, nor the fierce attacks of the enemy, have in any way weakened the independent resolve of the British nation.’
When, at last, the crowds let him go, Winston returned to his office, where telegrams from around the world were piled high on his desk. The celebrations continued unabated for the next few days, but Winston’s attention had already turned to other pressing concerns.
Communism in Europe
The Russians were tightening their hold over eastern and central Europe and the Balkans. Equally alarming was the news that the Americans planned to withdraw half their troops from central Germany and send them to the Pacific, where Japan remained undefeated.
Winston tried to impress on Roosevelt’s successor as US President, Harry S. Truman, his own fears for the future of Europe. He insisted that American troops must remain at least until it became possible to reach an understanding with the Russians.
Truman agreed that Stalin, the Russian leader, must be confronted and arranged a conference at Potsdam near Berlin. In a broadcast on May 13, Winston warned his listeners of the difficulties that lay ahead.
“Our toils and trouble,” he said “are not yet over ...We have yet to make sure that the simple and honorable purposes for which we entered the war are not brushed aside or overlooked in the months following our success, and the words ‘freedom, democracy’ and ‘liberation’ are not distorted from their true meaning.”
British General Election
The Potsdam conference was arranged for July 17, but before that there was another challenge to be faced. Winston had hoped that his wartime coalition government could continue in office until the Japanese were defeated. But the Labor Party were putting pressure on him to call a General Election, for its members were convinced that they stood a good chance of victory.
Behind this belief lay the Beveridge Report of 1942 which provided Labor with a strong base for their election campaign. Prepared by a committee led by the economist Sir William Beveridge, the report had outlined a radical new approach to Britain’s social security system and supplied a blueprint for a future welfare state.
This state would provide unemployment insurance, free medical care, child benefits and old age pensions - advantages never before available the widespread scale intended. These reforms echoed Winston’s own welfare policies nearly twenty years earlier, but his commitment to social reform had largely been forgotten.
In 1945, the British electorate seemed more likely to entrust the Labor leader, Clement Attlee and his party with the task Beveridge offered, wiping away the acute poverty and poor health and housing the mass of Britons had suffered for centuries.
By contrast, the interests of a new Conservative government led by Winston Churchill were more likely to lie where they had always been, with the favored rich who monopolized all that was most privileged in British life.
Please see also: The Life and Struggled of Winston Churchill: on the campaign trail
Sources
Green, Michael and Brown, James D: Patton's Third Army in World War II: An Illustrated History (Osceola, Wisconsin: Zenith Press, 2010) ISBN-10: 0760336911/ISBN-13: 978-0760336915
Le Tissier, Tony: RACE FOR THE REICHSTAG: The 1945 Battle for Berlin Barnsley, Yorkshire, UK: Pen and Sword Books, 2010) ISBN-10: 1848842309/ISBN-13: 978-1848842304
V-E Day: May 8, 1945 — Infoplease.com
Brenda Ralph Lewis - My interest in history dates from childhood. I am presently the author of 120 books and hundreds of articles, all on historical ...
