This Day In History

13th May 1940: Churchill’s “blood, toil, tears and sweat” speech

On this day in 1940 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made his famous speech in the House of Commons. The speech was his first to the Commons since becoming Prime Minister on 10th May. He gave the speech during the Battle of France of the Second World War and it provided a great morale boost in the United Kingdom.

“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering.

You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory. Victory at all costs - Victory in spite of all terror - Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival”

May 10th 1941: Hess parachutes into Scotland

On this day in 1941 during the Second World War, Adolf Hitler’s deputy in the Nazi Party Rudolf Hess fled Germany and parachuted into Scotland in an attempt to negotiate peace with the United Kingdom. On 10th May he took off in a plane from Augsburg, Germany, evading capture by German forces. In the evening he arrived over the UK and parachuted down near the Scottish village of Eaglesham. He told authorities he had an important message and was handed to the army who took him as a prisoner of war. Winston Churchill sent Hess to the Tower of London, making him its last inmate. After the war he was tried at the Nuremberg Trials and sentenced to life imprisonment, which he served at Spandau Prison in Berlin. Despite calls for his release Hess died in prison in 1987, supposedly due to suicide by hanging, but many claim others helped in his death.

“I do not think I could have arrived at my final choice unless I had continually kept before my eyes the vision of an endless line of children’s coffins with weeping mothers behind them, both English and German, and another line of coffins of mothers with mourning children”
- Hess on why he flew to the UK

May 8th 1945: VE Day

On this day in 1945 at the end of the Second World War, combat ended in Europe with the Germans accepting unconditional surrender in Rheims, France. The German surrender marked the end of Hitler’s Third Reich, after the dictator’s suicide on 30th April. Germany’s surrender was led by German President Karl Dönitz, signed on 7th May and ratified on 8th May. The Western world celebrated, with huge festivities in Trafalgar Square and outside Buckingham Palace in London and in New York’s Time Square. British King George VI and Prime Minister Winston Churchill led the celebrations in their country, and US President Harry Truman dedicated the victory to his recently deceased predecessor remarking his only wish was that “Franklin D. Roosevelt had lived to witness this day”.

“This is your hour. This is your Victory”
- Winston Churchill to crowds on VE Day

May 2nd 1945: Fall of Berlin

On this day in 1945 during the Second World War, the Soviet Union announced the capture of Berlin. The Battle of Berlin was the final offensive in the European theatre of the war. As the Soviets advanced on the capital, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler retreated into his Führerbunker and on 30th April he and his wife Eva Braun committed suicide. Two days later Berlin’s defenders surrendered to the Soviets as they captured the Reichstag and famously raised a Soviet flag over the historic building. The photo above by Yevgeny Khaldei became famous as representative of the fall of Berlin and, for Soviets, the victory of the USSR. 

February 22nd 1943: Members of the White Rose group are executed in Nazi Germany

On this day in 1943 three members of the peaceful resistance movement in Nazi Germany, the White Rose, were executed. The White Rose comprised of students from the University of Munich and their philosophy professor and distributed leaflets protesting against the regime of Adolf Hitler. On 18th February 1943, the siblings Sophie and Hans Scholl were arrested by the Gestapo for being discovered distributing these leaflets. On the 22nd, the Scholls and Christoph Probst (the founding members of the group) were tried, found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. That same day the three were executed by guillotine at Stadelheim Prison. After their executions the remaining members were arrested and killed, thus ending their resistance movement.
The group’s motto was:

“We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace!”

February 2nd 1943: Battle of Stalingrad ends

On this day in 1943, German troops surrendered to the Soviet Red Army in Stalingrad, thus ending the 5 months of fighting. The Battle of Stalingrad is among the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare, with nearly 2 million casualties. The Germans had attempted to invade Russia and capture Stalingrad, but the Russians fought back and cut off and surrounded the German army. The Russian winter soon set in, with sub-zero temperatures weakening the German forces. Eventually, the remaining army surrendered, and 91,000 were taken prisoner (including 22 generals). The German failure at Stalingrad was a key turning point in the Second World War, as the army never recovered from their defeat.

On this day in 1945, the Soviet Red Army liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Auschwitz was a network of concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany, and was used as the place of the “final solution of the Jewish question in Europe”. Jews and other groups were sent to the camps from 1942 onwards, where many were sent to their death in the gas chambers. Most of those who escaped the gas chambers died of starvation, disease, and execution by the Nazi guards. It is estimated that around 1.3 million people died there.

The Nazis had begun the evacuation of the camp on January 17th as the Red Army drew near. Around 7,500 remained in the camp and were liberated by the 322nd Rifle Division of the Red Army on January 27th.

Today, the site of the Auschwitz camp serves as a museum to remember the victims, and attracts thousands every year who come to pay their respects. This day is commemorated around the world as Holocaust Remembrance Day in order to remember the millions who lost their lives to the brutality of the Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler.

On this day in 1945, the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp begins as Soviet forces close in. The SS sent orders calling for the execution of all remaining prisoners, but due to the chaos of the Nazi retreat, this was never carried out. The Nazi personnel ordered the evacuation of Auschwitz, with 60,000 prisoners being forced on a death march toward Wodzisław Śląski (Loslau) where they would be sent to other camps, with the weak and sick being left behind. Around 15,000 died on the way. 7,500 remained, and they were liberated by the 322nd Rifle Division of the Soviet Red Army on January 27th 1945.

Auschwitz was a network of concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany (the largest of its kind), and was used as the place of the “final solution of the Jewish question in Europe” by Heinrich Himmler. Jews and other groups were sent to the camps from 1942 onwards, where many were sent to their death in the gas chambers. Most of those who escaped the gas chambers died of starvation, disease, and execution by the Nazi guards. It is estimated that around 1.3 million people died there.

As the prospect of German defeat in the war drew near, officials tried to hide the German crimes committed at the camps. Some of the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau had their rooves removed in November 1944 so that the cremation ovens could be removed, and the remainder were blown up in January 1945.

Auschwitz remains a symbol of the horrors committed by the Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler, and the stories of its victims and survivors continue to be told, in the hope that such tragedy shall never befall the world again.

(Eleanor Roosevelt with a copy of the Declaration)

On this day in 1948, the United Nations adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was accepted by a vote of 48 in favour, 0 against, with eight abstentions: the USSR, Ukranian SSR, Byelorussian SSR, Yugoslavia, Poland, South Africa and Saudi Arabia.

The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled. It consists of 30 articles which have been elaborated in subsequent international treaties, regional human rights instruments, national constitutions and laws. The Declaration expresses the right to freedom of expression, right to education, protection from torture etc.