The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1945, Side 5

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
3
V. <£. 3)ay,
Tuesday, May 8, was V. E. Day—victory over Europe. On that day
and the day before, when the unconditional surrender of Germany flashed
across the radio waves all over the world, there was rejoicing and
exultation. There were sighs of relief. On those two days, but more espec-
ially on the following Sunday, there were prayers and solemn thanksgiving.
Now that the tumult and the shouting is over and the prayers have
been said and the thanksgiving expressed we ask ourselves: what did
V. E. day mean? Was it really a day of victory, only a day of victory,
or was it something else?
After we had heard Mr. Churchill we finally realized how close we
came to defeat, not once but twice, during the war. We knew how narrow
the margin was in 1940-41, when the people of Britain, with the aid of the
overseas dominions, stood alone in the island fortress and kept the foe at
bay. Now we know that if the V-l andV-2 rockets and flying bombs had
been ready a few months earlier (the Air Force caused the delay) and if
the new U-boat fleet and the multiple long range artillery had got into
action, not only would London and other British cities have been destroyed
but there would have been no D day, and without it we could not have
had a V. E. day.
It is well that we pause and reflect upon what would have happened
if Germany had won.
Hitler always maintained that Denmark and Norway were the ideal
countries to be taken under the protection of the Nazis. After all, he said,
these nations were of the same blood. They were Nordics. They had to be
treated kindly, given a place next to the Superior Race, the Germans. Only
now, after we have heard the stories as told by Haakon Lie of Norway and
Capt. Peter Freuchen of Denmark, and as other authentic evidence is
reaching us, do we realize the fate of the most favored nations under the
Nazi heel. A similar fate awaited Britain and would have awaited us had
there been defeat instead of victory in Europe.
In the past, news filtered through about tortures and designed
starvation in the countries a grade lower in the Nazi scheme—Belgium
and Holland. But even in our blackest moments we could not picture what
actually took place at Amersort and other concentration camps in Holland.
We think of the countries and the races at the bottom of the list,
the Poles, the Czecho-'Slovaks and the Jews—four millions killed at
Oswiecim; gas chambers; rows of furnaces; men, women and even children
buried alive.
We read of planned and studied tortures at Buchenwald. We hear of