On May 8, National Victory Day, a ceremony was held at Marshal Józef Piłsudski Square in Warsaw to commemorate the 79th anniversary of the end of World War II and the unconditional surrender of the Third German Reich.

The organizer was the Office for Veterans and Victims of Oppression.

During the anniversary ceremony, an appeal of remembrance was read, and in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, numerous representatives of state and local government institutions, social organizations, uniformed services, veterans’ organizations, representatives of the clergy and also a delegation of employees of the Polish Army Museum. Director of the Museum prof. Ph.D. Bogusław Pacek took part in laying wreaths on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

On May 8 in Berlin, at the march headquarters. Georgy Zhukov, in the presence of representatives of three allied powers: the United States, Great Britain and France, German Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel signed the act of unconditional surrender of the Third Reich. The day before, in Reims, at the headquarters of General Dwight David Eisenhower, the capitulation on the Western Front was signed by Col. General. Alfred Jodl. The largest armed conflict in the history of humanity has ended, in which 33 million people died. However, no peace agreement was signed. The borders of European countries were determined by the so-called The “Big Three” at the Potsdam Conference in July 1945. The war resulted in the political division of Europe and the world into two hostile camps: the communist one, dominated by the USSR, and the democratic one, led by the USA. Poland was also behind the Iron Curtain. The anniversary of the end of World War II in the USSR and in the “communist bloc” (in Russia to this day) was celebrated a day later than in the West; Due to the time difference, it was already May 9 when the surrender was signed in Moscow.