End of World War II



Today is the 76th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.  On  May 7, 1945, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allies in Reims, France, ending the Third Reich.

This marked the end of thee bloodiest war the world had ever seen. Its perpetrator, Adolf Hitler, the German Fuehrer, allegedly committed suicide on 30th April 1945 in s Berlin  bunker.

Hitler led a charmed life. He had miraculously escaped death on the Western Front during WW I at least twice. During the second World War, there were at least six assassination attempts on him, but he survived all of them.

It has been widely reported that Hitler did not die in 1945, but escaped to Argentina in a German submarine, where he lived out the test of his life. He supposedly passed away in 1962, three years before his nemesis Winston Churchill.

Be that as it may, Hitler led Germany to a sphinx-like revival after a bitter defeat in the first World War. However, he plunged the nation into another great war, which saw the dismantling of Prussia, Germany's largest state. Europe lived through many a horror during this war , and emerged after millions of lives had been lost. 

Following Hitler's genocide of the Jews, the end of the war also saw the birth of Israel, the Zionist nation. 

Following  the second World War,  the  European continent witnessed peace for over 4 decades. War broke out in the Balkans in South-eastern Europe again in the 1990s. Thus led to the break-up of Yugoslavia.

The only other violence in Europe after WW II was when the Soviet Union invaded Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.

The not so indirect effect of the second World War was the loss of the Anglo-French colonial empires. Too exhausted after the war, both Britain and France did not want to fight and hold on to their former colonies, which gained independence one by one.

The picture shows Adolf Hitler with other soldiers of his regiment in WW I. Also seen is his beloved dog Fuchsl (little fox).

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