Germany: Over 10,000 people gathered in Berlin yesterday to remember the world war unleashed by Nazi Germany, which ended here 60 years ago.
The huge turnout for the "Day of Democracy" events forced the cancellation of a planned neo-Nazi march through the city centre. Nearly 3,000 members of the extreme right National Democratic Party (NPD) were escorted out of Berlin by police in riot gear after 15,000 protesters blocked the planned march route.
German leaders laid wreaths and attended an ecumenical memorial service.
President Horst Köhler said Germans felt "abhorrence and contempt" for the crimes committed by Nazi leaders. Germans would never be able to draw a line under their history and had a responsibility to keep alive the memory of their country's most shameful hour, he said.
"We mourn all of Germany's victims - the victims of the violence that originated in Germany and the victims of the violence that struck back at Germany. We mourn all victims because we want to be just to all peoples, also our own," he said before a joint session of parliament in the Reichstag.
Exactly 60 years earlier, Red Army soldiers swarmed around the same building: its capture marked the symbolic end of the war in Europe.
"I remember arriving at the Reichstag in a huge rush and scratching my name on the wall, then we danced and danced," said an emotional Pawel Petrovic, a Red Army veteran, as he looked again at the Reichstag yesterday.
The capitulation treaty was signed in the eastern suburb of Karlshorst, a former Soviet army headquarters and now a museum.
A screen in the corner of the modest ballroom shows film footage of the bustle here at 11pm on May 8th, 1945, when the treaty was signed. The signing hall hasn't been touched since: yellowing Allied flags still hang from the wall while six tables still bear their green baize covers and crystal decanters.
"There was no orchestra, there were no speeches about a new era, this was pure politics," said historian Dr Stefan Doernberg (81) who witnessed the signing. His Jewish family fled Berlin for Moscow in 1935 and Doernberg was one of just three Germans who marched into Berlin in May 1945 under the Soviet flag. "I was just a small witness to this great act, but I didn't think then that it was of any importance, just a formal act. I had very mixed feelings. I was part of the army that freed Europe from fascism but I still felt German," Dr Doernberg said.
"I had understanding for the situation of Germans then, which wasn't easy. But mostly I just felt this feeling of tremendous happiness that this terrible war was over."
On Saturday evening, over 25,000 candle-carrying people formed a "chain of light" through the city's once divided east-west axis. Police and politicians expressed relief that the neo-Nazi march was prevented.
The NPD holds regular marches in German cities, taking advantage of constitutional guarantees of freedom of assembly, and police were legally obliged to provide protection for yesterday's planned march.
"The anti-fascist groups achieved their goal and the NPD was forced to cancel the march. I'm very happy about that," said Ms Nicole Rothärmel, spokesperson for the Berlin police.