In April 1945, even before the official armistice, the name Torgau went around the world with the news of the first meeting between the Allies. The monument to this historic meeting was designed by the Kiev architect Miletzky and erected in the fall of 1945.
On April 25, 1945, a US reconnaissance patrol led by William Robertson set off from Wurzen in the morning. On their way towards the Elbe, the four GIs in the jeep had to repeatedly disarm German soldiers and provide them with passes. In Sitzenroda, British prisoners of war reported that American soldiers, both captured and wounded, were being held in a military prison in Torgau. Robertson decided to go there - against orders and far beyond the permitted radius.
They found Torgau largely deserted. The population had been forced to evacuate the town in mid-April, the Reich Court Martial had left for Freising with goods wagons full of files, and the thousands of prisoners in the two Wehrmacht prisons had been sent on evacuation marches.
Near the barracks, Robertson and his men came across some prisoners left behind from the Wehrmacht prison Fort Zinna. They joined the patrol and reported that Soviet troops had already reached the eastern bank of the Elbe, near the Wehrmacht prison Brückenkopf.
Using red and blue color paint from a drugstore, they quickly transformed a requisitioned bed sheet into a US flag. Arriving at Hartenfels Castle, Robertson climbed up to the attic of the Flaschenturm and hung the flag out of the window. The Elbe bridge lay blown up in the river. He waved and shouted until Soviet soldiers on the bridgehead on the other side became aware and fired red flares. Robertson and his men were unable to respond with green flares as agreed - they had none with them.
As a result, they came under fire. It was only with the help of Titov, a Soviet prisoner of war who had been brought in from Fort Zinna, that they managed to communicate. Now Robertson and his men ran to the bridge and carefully began to cross the steel arches. Sergeant Andreyev and others approached from the east.
They hugged each other wordlessly. It was about 4 pm. Here, in this place, the war was over. On the eastern side, the Americans received an enthusiastic welcome. Robertson negotiated with the commander about a meeting at command level the next day. Accompanied by Alexander Silvashko and three other Soviet soldiers, Robertson briefed the staffs of his division that evening.
The first contact between Soviet and American soldiers had already taken place a few kilometers up the Elbe near Strehla around noon the same day. One of the US soldiers involved at the time, Joe Polowsky, later campaigned in vain for 25 April to be recognized as “World Peace Day”. In accordance with his last wishes, he was buried in the Protestant cemetery in Torgau in 1983.
The historic “Torgau link-up” was re-enacted for the press on the destroyed bridge on April 26, 1945, and the picture went around the world. The commanders met in the kitchen barracks of the Wehrmacht prison Brückenkopf. Incidentally, this meeting on the Elbe also put an end to Torgau's role as the headquarters of the Wehrmacht's penal system.
Author: Wolfgang Oleschinski, Head of the Dokumentations- und Informationszentrums (DIZ) Torgau
Every year in April, Elbe Day commemorates the historic encounter between US and Soviet troops on the destroyed Elbe Bridge in Torgau. A three-day music program, readings and film screenings frame the solemn commemorative event.
In 2015, the town of Torgau welcomed the US and Russian ambassadors as well as veterans and eyewitnesses to the 70th anniversary of the encounter. Memories were recounted with great emotion. Elbe Day is an exuberant festival where jazz, Dixie and blues fans get their money's worth. But more than that, the festival aims to make people aware of the great value of living in peace.
To mark the 80th anniversary of the historic encounter on the Elbe, the town of Torgau and the Torgau Documentation and Information Center (DIZ) of the Saxon Memorials Foundation have published a digital publication on Elbe Day. In short articles, contemporary witnesses, companions and project participants take a multi-layered look at the events of that time and at the same time shed light on the lively culture of remembrance that extends to the present day.
Experience Elbe Day in Torgau!
Celebrate the historical encounter on the Elbe with a varied program of commemorative events, discussions with contemporary witnesses and cultural highlights.
Completed in September 1945, the Monument to the Encounter by Soviet soldier and architect Abraham Milezkij attracts thousands of visitors from many countries every year. It commemorates the meeting of the Allies on the Elbe on April 25, 1945, when the imminent end of the Second World War in Europe was announced.
On Elbe Day, part of the commemorative event takes place here, where veterans, eyewitnesses, survivors, ambassadors and guests come together to remember the many victims and the peace that has existed since then. Many wreaths then adorn the memorial of the encounter.
