If you'd just surrendered in 1940, none of this would have had to happen.

It's a rough quotation I read long ago, communicated by a British officer, of what he was told by an old German woman just as the war was ending. Its stuck with me because it is both dark and humorous, after the entire conflict the woman blaming the winners for, ya' know, winning.

Anyways though, this one anecdote sums up the perspective of some, a mix of despair at the destruction wrought on Germany, and anger at the Allies for causing it, as opposed to the German leadership for bringing it about. Even those glad the fighting was at an end still has the dark reality of circumstances to face, after all. In any case though, by no means is there one, consistent perspective.

For many, imprisoned by the Germans in Concentration Camps, the end of the war was a godsend. I've written previously about those last days and hearing the news previously, specifically focusing on its portrayal in Schindler's List, which you can find here. In camps already liberated, news was received quicker of course, and the jubilee less restrained. an observer at Mittelbau-Dora recalled how the former prisoners celebrated on the 7th:

An imposing, impromptu victory celebration was hastily arranged by the camp authorities. People were dancing and singing at the site of the old Appellplatz, All kinds of performances took place. The orchestra played the popular songs of the era. The survivors enjoyed their new attained, precious freedom.

Others though, while free, could only contemplate the horrors they had faced and those who didn't survive. Recovering in hospital at the Bergen-Belsen, Margit Schonfeld remembered how:

I heard from very far the sound of bells, somebody told me "the war is over" but I felt no joy. I knew that my whole family was wiped out. I felt miserable and thought I was dying.

For hundreds of thousands of German soldiers, the first days of May were likewise welcome. "Stragglers" had long become an endemic problem as thousands of soldiers claiming to be separated from their unit wandered away from the front in the final months of the war, and plenty of those who didn't take that step certainly contemplated it. Especially in the West, facing the Western Allies, soldiers generally didn't need to be told twice to stop fighting, and began stacking their arms in earnest once told. This wasn't quite universal though, as diehards remained in the ranks. The Waffen-SS was often the most reticent to acknowledge the end had finally come, and while the Wehrmacht complacently walked into captivity, many SS units remained armed.

Chronicling those final days, the British reporter George McCarthy recounted his brief captivity at their hands, when he accompanied a small British unit of 24 men that was traveling through northern Germany to enter Denmark on May 7th. They passed by thousands of German soldiers who didn't pay them any mind, but the Waffen-SS they encountered it was only a "truce", and that they didn't need to disarm, and attempted to prevent their passage, holding the small group for half an hour, until their commander was prevailed upon to get new orders, although they were soon let go in any case when a larger contingent passed through, and the Germans at the least didn't have the willingness to resist a force that size.

To the East, things were less easy going. The rumors of possible horrors that faced anyone who was captured by the Soviets ensured a deeper willingness to fight to the end, or if possible, make ones' way west. One of the very last engagements of the war against Germany was fought on May 7th. The Americans had made it to the bank of the Elbe, and thus were able to see the Soviets and Germans continuing their desperate fight even as the war was at a close and the Red Army pushed the Germans against the river, holding a 1,000 yard bridgehead and fighting a desperate delaying action to try and hold the crossings as long as possible. James Wellard, a journalist at the front wrote of what he saw:

It was fought 200 yards from me between thousands of disorganised, hysterical, screaming Germans, and the implacable, ruthless Russian tanks and infantry. From the top of an American tank, which, if it had opened fire, could have slaughtered hundreds of Germans at point-blank range, I saw scenes so fantastic that they surpass anything I have seen in four years of war.

It wasn't only soldiers dying, as many civilians also attempted to cross Tangermüde bridge as the Americans watched passively, and plenty didn't make it, the bridge itself destroyed and crossing only possible over a jury-rigged walkway. Wellard thought quite poorly of the Germans, accusing the German army of "being cowardly degenerates" for their behavior as he described the scene, with the soldiers giving little concern for the civilians by the end, recounting scenes of soldiers pushing old women out of their little boat to take it for themselves. And although he noted some 50,000 Germans crossed that point over five days, he catalogs the types of people he saw, including many generals and staff officers, who fled at the expense of those few willing to hold the rear guard.

In the end, this is only a small slice of responses one could find, and I hope others will weigh in with their own alternatives as well. I need to take a break, but I feel this is complete enough to post, although do check back later since I'll add a few more perspectives if I have the time later.

Sources

Gilbert, Martin. The Day the War Ended. Henry Holt & Co. 1995

Kershaw, Ian. The End: Hitler's Germany 1944–45. Penguin Books, 2011.