Elbe Day, April 25, 1945, was the day Soviet and American troops met at the Elbe River, near Torgau in Germany, marking an important step toward the end of the Second World War (World War II) in Europe.
In an arranged photo commemorating the meeting of the Soviet and American armies, 2nd Lt. William Robertson (U.S. Army) and Lt. Alexander Silvashko (Red Army) faced one another with hands clasped and arms around each other's shoulders. In the background are two flags and a poster. (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Pictures of World War II, image #121 (111-SC-205228), "Happy 2nd Lt. William Robertson and Lt. Alexander Sylvashko, Red Army, shown in front of sign [East Meets West] symbolizing the historic meeting of the Soviet and American Armies, near Torgau, Germany on Elbe Day.)
The NY Times blog summarized on April 25, 2012:
The Times reported on the events of April 25 in Germany in its April 28 edition. The war correspondent Drew Middleton wrote, “Two armies of plain men who had marched and fought from the blood-splashed beaches of Normandy and the shattered streets of Stalingrad have met on the Elbe River in the heart of Germany, splitting the Third Reich and sealing the doom of the German Army, whose tread shook the world only three short years ago.”
Five days later, the leader of Germany, Adolf Hitler, committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin as Soviet troops continued their conquest of the city. His successor Admiral Karl Dönitz, as Staatsoberhaupt (Head of State), immediately began to negotiate a surrender to the Western Allies (i.e., the United States and the United Kingdom). On May 8, 1945, representatives of what little was left of the German Third Reich signed instruments of unconditional surrender to the Allies in both Rheims, in France, and Berlin, the German capital.
Also on April 25, 1945, in San Francisco, 46 nations began meeting to discuss the creation of the United Nations, an international organization intended to maintain peace between nations. Also known as the San Francisco Conference, the official name of the two-month-long convention was the United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO). It resulted in the creation of the United Nations Charter, which was opened for signature on June 26, 1945.
Insignia of the conference, a prototype of the current logo of the United Nations.
Another photo from that day: "At a prisoner-of-war enclosure near Remagen, Germany, a U.S. soldier takes part in keeping guard over thousands of German soldiers captured in the Ruhr area, 25 April 1945 (U.S. Army photograph.)
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