A message to Austria from Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on the 75th Anniversary of VE Day
VE day didn’t just mark the end of war. It also marked a new era. For Austria, for the UK, for the rest of the world too.
A message from Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to Austria
Transcript
Today we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe. The 8th of May 1945 is embedded in our collective memory. It brought an end to what many hoped would prove to be the war to end all wars. It was a sobering moment across Europe and across the rest of the world where our nations grieved the millions of people who lost their lives including members of my own family who couldn’t escape from Czechoslovakia and perished after the Nazis invaded.
So it’s with pride and gratitude that we will always remember the sacrifice and the heroism of those who fell on the battlefield, those who died fighting to defend the freedoms that we cherish today. And it’s with the heaviest of hearts that we will never forget the innocents who played no part in the fighting but were taking from our families too often with unspeakable brutality. Today those emotions and those instincts continue to inspire our pursuit of peace, freedom and the international rule of law around the world.
Of course VE day didn’t just mark the end of war. It also marked a new era. For Austria, for the UK, for the rest of the world too. VE day gave us hope, it was a new beginning. Built on a promise of peace and stability with a resounding commitment to “nie wieder”, never again.
And I am proud of how the United Kingdom supported Austria through the difficult times after 1945. Tens of thousands of British troops were stationed in Austria from 1945-55, and they played an essential role in helping rebuild Austria’s infrastructure.
Britain and Austria have been working together for 75 years since VE day and we will continue to work together to strengthen a friendship nurtured by common values and the experience of everything that we have been through together. So it’s fitting today that we stand together in the very deepest solidarity and friendship to honour those lost during the bleakest chapter of history but also to look to a brighter future working side by side as a force for good in the world.