Germans demand public holiday to mark Nazi defeat

BERLIN – Most Germans would like to celebrate the May 8 anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II with a public holiday, a new survey has revealed.

The YouGov survey found 53% of Germans found it appropriate to declare a new national holiday on May 8, the date on which Nazi Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allies.

The survey found that 27% of respondents felt it would be “rather” or “very” inappropriate.
Younger people were particularly supportive, with 61% of people aged 18-24 in favour.

People in the former East Germany were also more supportive, with 57% in favour versus 51% in the former West Germany.

The far-left Die Linke political party has called for May 8 to be a German holiday celebrating “liberation and anti-fascism.”

A number of European countries that fought against Nazi Germany already celebrate Germany’s defeat as a national holiday, often known as Victory in Europe (or VE) Day.

Germany’s military capitulated to the Soviet Union, US, Britain and France just over a week after Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler committed suicide in Berlin.

YouGov carried out the representative survey of 14,181 people in Germany aged 18 and up between May 5 and 7, 2023.