Reims is not only the city of kings and Champagne: it is also where the Second World War ended in Europe. In the spring of 1945, General Eisenhower set up the headquarters of the Allied forces (SHAEF) in a modern technical college near the station. Its wide corridors and its staff room, lined with operations maps, made it an ideal command post.
The signing
During the night of 6 to 7 May 1945, the German envoys, led by General Jodl, arrived in Reims. At 2.41 a.m. on 7 May they signed the act of unconditional military surrender, in the presence of American, British, Soviet and French officers. Fighting was to stop on 8 May at 11.01 p.m. At Moscow’s request, a second ceremony was held the next day in Berlin — which is why victory is marked on 8 May in the West and on 9 May in the East.
Why Reims, and why two signatures
In the spring of 1945, Eisenhower moved his headquarters closer to the front, leaving Versailles for Reims and a modern technical college with wide corridors. It was there, and not in Paris or Berlin, that Germany came to negotiate. General Jodl signed for the Reich; General Bedell Smith for the Western Allies; General Susloparov for the Soviet Union.
Susloparov had no instructions from Moscow. Stalin, holding that the surrender had to be signed in the capital of the defeated Reich, demanded a second ceremony: it was held in Berlin during the night of 8 to 9 May. Hence two days of remembrance, 8 May in the West and 9 May in the East, for one and the same act. The college itself is now the Lycée Roosevelt: pupils walk past the room where the war stopped every day.
A room frozen in time
The map room where the surrender was signed has not changed. The wall maps, with their front lines and annotations, are those of May 1945. Around it, the Museum of the Surrender tells the story of the Liberation, of life in Reims under the Occupation and of the days that followed, through photographs, uniforms and objects.
Getting there
The museum is on rue du Président-Franklin-Roosevelt, about a ten-minute walk from Reims-Centre station, or some fifteen minutes by tram from the Saint-Remi quarter. The visit is short — three quarters of an hour is enough — and rounds off a day divided between medieval heritage and 20th-century history.
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Photo : Fab5669 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons