80: Elbe Day

80 years ago today (April 25, 1945) the Soviet Red Army and the US Army met at the Elbe River in Nazi Germany – cutting the country in two.

2nd Lt. William Robertson (U.S. Army) and Lt. Alexander Silvashko (Red Army) were the ones in the famous picture of the event.

After the War, Silvashko returned to his native Ukraine to find his Family and his village wiped out.  Army comrades from Belarus encouraged him to settle there in the small village of Morach where he spent the rest of his life. 

Robertson went on to study Medicine and became a noted Neurosurgeon in Los Angeles.

 Silvashko and Robertson did not see each again until 1975, when détente between the United States and the Soviet Union brought them back together in Moscow to commemorate the 30th anniversary of their meeting on the Elbe. 

Bill Robertson died in 1999 and Alexander Silvashko a few years later.