V-E Day at 81: how Europe marks the end of the Second World War

The instruments of Germany's unconditional surrender, signed in Reims and Berlin-Karlshorst on 8 May 1945, formally ended six years of war in Europe. The documents were signed before allied command centres and Soviet representatives, with effect set for midnight.

France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands mark 8 May as a national day; Germany has again leaned this year on the theme of remembrance. Several Eastern European states still use 9 May, in reference to the Soviet victory; the gap keeps alive a continuous debate over how the continent's history is told.

Museums this year are running special exhibitions on the EU and NATO structures that emerged in the decades after 1945. The commemorations unfold against the backdrop of the conflict in Ukraine and the Iran war; historians warn that memory rests not only on ceremony but on the institutions it preserves.