PARIS // Sombre ceremonies were held in Europe on Friday to mark 70 years since victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, as leaders warned of modern day threats such as the war in Ukraine and religious extremism.
The muted celebrations came a day before Moscow rolls out its full military might at a parade that is being snubbed by Western leaders due to tensions over the crisis in Ukraine.
Poland opened the Victory Day commemorations with a midnight ceremony in northern Westerplatte, where the first shots of the war were fired on September 1, 1939, as Nazi forces swept across the border.
In France, president Francois Hollande laid a wreath at the tomb of an unknown soldier under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris after urging citizens not to grow complacent about war.
“We didn’t experience the war, we see it as a far-off reality, sometimes abstract, even though it is not so far from us, in Ukraine, further still in the Middle East,” he said.
Victory Day is celebrated across Europe on May 8 – the day Germany surrendered in 1945 and WWII ended in Europe.
Mr Hollande also referred to the hundreds of French citizens who have gone to fight alongside fighters in Syria and Iraq.
“There is also terrorism which can strike us, racism, anti-Semitism. There are still causes which should spur us on.”
France is still recovering from an extremist killing spree in and around Paris in January which left 17 people dead over three days.
“I think in the wake of what happened in January we must come together, find common ground,” said Jean Ruiz, witnessing the ceremony on the Champs Elysees avenue.
“There are memories which must not be forgotten,” said his wife Mireille.
US secretary of state John Kerry, whose mother was born in France, also laid a wreath under the Arc de Triomphe.
Seventy years ago, “a handful of war-scarred countries started down a new path that united a continent,” Mr Kerry said.
“Today, thanks to the European Union, we are closer than ever to a Europe that is whole, free, and at peace.”
Mr Kerry expressed his country’s support for Europe in the face of the new threats it is facing, commending its “leadership in the fight” against ISIL.
“Together we stand firm with the people of Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression,” he said.
Russia and former Soviet states mark Victory Day on May 9 due to a time difference at the point the surrender became effective.
For the first time, however, Ukraine – which is locked in a brutal conflict with pro-Moscow rebels – broke with Russia and marked May 8 as a “Day of Memory and Reconciliation”.
Kiev also chose a new symbol for the event – a poppy – and changed the way it refers to the conflict from the “Great Patriotic War”, introduced by Soviet authorities, to the “Second World War.”
The war did not end in the Pacific until September 2 when Japan surrendered to the United States after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Historians believe that between 40 and 60 million people were killed in WWII, half of them civilians.
Meanwhile, Germany also marked its “liberation” from the Nazis in a joint session of parliament where speaker Norbert Lammert hailed the willingness of the country’s neighbours to forgive.
“Today we remember the millions of victims of an unprecedented annihilation campaign against other nations and peoples, against Slavs, against the Jews of Europe,” he said.
In Russia, Germany’s foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier laid a wreath at the site of the Battle of Stalingrad.
"In a few decades a free society has been established," German newspaper Die Welt said of the country. "Children and grandchildren endeavour to understand this dark past."
* Agence France-Presse
