The NY Times had an interesting piece on Germany's view of WW II and VE Day. They note:
Over recent decades, it has become an ever more common convention in Germany to commemorate May 8 as a day of “liberation.” Germany, the thinking goes, was saved from the evils of Nazism, and therefore Germans, too, ought to rejoice. There have been growing calls — particularly from leftist parties — to make May 8 a holiday. Last year, on the 75th anniversary of V-E Day, the city of Berlin observed a one-time public holiday, The Day of Liberation From National Socialism and the End of the Second World War. A message in English, Russian and French, the languages of the occupation forces, was projected on the Brandenburg Gate: “Thank You.”
The argument is that the Allies liberated the Germans from the Nazis, some alien force that had taken over the country.
Now I have had the advantage of living in German occupied lands after WW II. So some observations are worth noting.
1. I had a German subsidiary located in Munich. My first visit with my new partners first involved sausage and beer. I do not drink bee so for me sausage and wine, not a great match. After dinner, and some beer, they took me on a tour of old Munich, mostly rebuilt after the War. They wanted to show me every place Adolph was in. Thus I feel it is reasonable that these Germans were still connected to the "occupiers".
2. I lived in Prague. One of my employees thought speaking Russian would help. It did not. So he switched to German...it was worse. I kept to English, they liked me.
3. I also had partners in Moscow. For anyone coming from the airport to the city see the still damaged German tanks along the road. A stark reminder. The best one was visiting Deutsche Telekom. The Russian had them get an office at the outskirts of Moscow across from a park with some demolished German tanks. When I asked the DT manager why he was so far out of town he replied looking at the tanks, "The Russians let us cross the street."
4. On a brief sojourn from my Athens office I went to Crete. Speaking a bit of Greek we arrived just after Oki Day, when the Greeks rebelled. A large group of German tourists were leaving. My Greek hoteliers looked at me as we exchanged my Greek English phrases and they stated their general dislike of the parting guests.
Thus for those who experienced the German destruction of Europe, it was not Nazi liberation but German defeat. The lesson; don't try this again!
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