NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 8, 2025, as a day in celebration of Victory Day for World War II. Victory Day for World War II, 2025 – The White House
This is probably one of the few Trump programs I whole heartedly support. Matter of fact, it’s weird that VE Day nor VJ Day were not holidays in the United States.
To be fair, most of Eastern Europe celebrates VE Day on May 9th because the second German Instrument of Surrender (Stalin refused to accept the first one earlier in the day as valid because the Soviet representative there was just a major or something like that and he wanted someone equal in rank to Tedder to sign on the Soviet’s behalf) because the second signing, while occurring really late at night on May 8th in Reims (Paris Time, had to correct that), coincided with like 2 o clock in the morning on May 9th in Moscow. So that’s why there are two different dates for VE Day.
Also the Baltic states see themselves as victims of both Nazi and Soviet aggression; they never accepted their forceful annexation into the USSR and the US actually never recognized it.
So they look at it differently than a bunch of other people.
Hitler believed he was saving Germany and getting revenge for World War I. And Mussolini was convinced he was rebuilding the Roman Empire. Neither of them felt they were doing anything wrong. It’s all about the greater good.
They welcomed them at first. Because the USSR had just brutally invaded all of them and the NKVD started deporting people to Siberia. The majority of people in the Baltic states soured on the Germans once they started their usual ■■■■■■■■ of killing everyone who was military age. There was no good choice for them. And yes, some of them became (or really already were) fascists. And those guys joined the Waffen-SS.
In addition, the Baltic states had way more cultural ties with Germany than the dominant power in the USSR, Russia. So of course they were friendly to the invading Germans at first because they didn’t know just how lunatic the Nazis were yet.
It is not an accident that the EU foreign minister, Kaja Kallas, is from Estonia. The raising of the Soviet flag over Berlin is considered a day of mourning, and celebration on the day can result a trip to an Estonian jail. That approach is becoming the new normal in much of Europe.
The US embassy in Moscow has a much different take on Victory Day 2025:
The 80th anniversary of Victory in the European Theatre of World War II is not only a time of triumphant celebration, but also a moment of silence and reverent remembrance. We remember the sacrifices of the Russian people: the Siege of Leningrad – almost 900 days of debilitating hunger and fierce resistance. We remember Stalingrad and Sevastopol. We remember the grandmothers who dug trenches and the children who carried water and reports. We remember the contributions of American, Soviet and other Allied forces to achieve this common goal. The Red Army soldiers who fought for every mile, every village, to reclaim their land from the invaders. The young American soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, who broke through the Ardennes in the Battle of the Bulge. The historic meeting of US and Soviet troops on the Elbe River. City by city, trench by trench, at the cost of countless casualties, the Allies together turned the tide of the war against Nazi tyranny. On this day we honor those whose sacrifices brought Victory. The victory was shared. And so was the memory of it.
The sacrifices of the Soviet people. Russia tries to act like only Russians suffered in the Great Patriotic War. In terms of statistics, the central Asians republics had the worst military casualties and Ukraine and Belorussia suffered much worse civilians casualties as a percentage. For some odd reason we play with their view.
Also consider what Estonia went through after the war. In terms of Nazis versus the Bolsheviks, that’s honestly a hard decision to decide who was worse if we are talking solely about the Baltic states.
