A banner headline in an Allied newspaper datelined Berlin, May 8, 1945, read "24 hours- How Germany capitulated — 6 million Germans in prisoner of war camps." Above the headline were portraits of Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill with the caption "Their nations did not want any slaves."
That was exactly 70 years ago on Friday. I remember it as if it were yesterday because I was a severely wounded German soldier in a military hospital in Luebeck, which was occupied by the British Army.
The feeling, which was widely shared, was one of fundamental relief. The war in Europe was over. No more killings in battle or in air raids. Whatever followed could not be as bad as the war.
Around the same time a delegation of British and U.S. medical doctors visited the military hospital and expressed their disbelief at the extraordinary number of amputees — wounded soldiers lost their limbs because of the shortage of medical supplies. Penicillin was not available.
After I left the hospital I encountered British soldiers who were eager to talk with English-speaking Germans. They wanted to know how German soldiers had experienced the war. There was no hatred. There was curiosity on both sides.
Some 70 years later, I believe that was the beginning of the realization, however faint, that there must be better solutions than war to mankind's problems. Perhaps in the common experience of war, no matter on which side soldiers fought, there was the need to create a united Europe.
That project took years to accomplish. But it did come about. Today it is impossible to imagine that Europeans would again go to war against one another.
Perhaps the cynical German philosopher who said "the only thing that people learn from history is that they do not learn from history" may be proved wrong after all.
Armin Mruck
The writer is a professor emeritus of history at Towson University.