VE Day 60th anniversary commemorated across Europe & USA

May 8, 2005

The 60th anniversary of has been commemorated Sunday across Europe and the.


 * In Germany:  and   attended a service at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in  and a wreath-laying ceremony at the main Soviet war memorial.  VE Day is commemorated as Democracy Day in Germany, as Germans consider it to be the day when they, too, were liberated from.
 * In the United Kingdom:
 * , wearing his uniform of in the, laid a commemorative wreath at the Cenotaph.   is scheduled to attend the main commemorative ceremony to be held on July 10, 2005.
 * At 19:00 UTC a Dakota DC3, from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight based at RAF Coningsby, flew over the Palace of Westminster, Whitehall, and Trafalgar Square to mark the beginning of a televised BBC VE Day concert.
 * In France: Jacques Chirac laid a memorial wreath at the  at the.
 * In the Netherlands:  and Queen  attended a memorial ceremony at a United States military cemetery near, where the  was sounded.
 * In :  gave a controversial speech at a commemorative celebration of victory over fascism in, starting with "Comrades, ladies and gentlemen." He said that , a World War Two Croatian state, was "founded on crime" and is "a discrace and an insult to Croats." The role of  and  during the World War Two is still a point of debate in Croatia.
 * In the United States: Former Sen. spoke during a Sunday ceremony commemorating the anniversary of allied victory in Europe, May 8, 1945. The ceremony was held near the  in.

The 60th anniversary of is scheduled to be celebrated in, and other successor states of the , on May 9, 2005.