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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;chrisild, post: 3520270, member: 39&quot;]17 March 1945 ... that was even after the area in Germany where I live was occupied or liberated by American military.</p><p><br /></p><p>We had a long debate here about what the right term should be. Obviously Victory Day does not apply here, it was an occupation, and back then nobody really knew what would happen. On the other hand, especially from a perspective some time later, it was a liberation from a regime that the Germans had not brought to an end themselves. And of course the people in Germany who were Jewish, socialists, homosexuals or had in whatever way been in the way of the nazis but survived, they welcomed this moment even more than those in Germany who were simply glad that the war was over.</p><p><br /></p><p>On the other bank of the river, however, the war went on even though most buildings in the city had already been destroyed. The official nazi party line was &quot;no surrender&quot;, and several people including leading police officers who had tried to hand the city over to the US forces (Aktion Rheinland) were executed because of &quot;high treason&quot; ... just a few days before WW2 was over.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]934666[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Today some argue that the term &quot;liberation&quot; is not appropriate when it comes to what happened in Germany. Interestingly there are two camps - those who would rather not be reminded of (or even cherish) that past, but also those who say that it is apologetic, as if the country had in &#039;33 been taken in a military coup. But I think that, since we are also reminded of the historical context in many ways, the term liberation makes sense. These &quot;Liberation Route&quot; signs here (see above) are bilingual, de/en, by the way.</p><p><br /></p><p>Somebody once said &quot;Winning a war is not the most difficult part of a conflict. Achieving and keeping peace afterwards is.&quot; This was one of the few cases where that, at least for what in the first years after &#039;45 were the Western occupation zones, actually worked well.</p><p><br /></p><p>Christian[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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