by Sarah Kuta
Last updated: 11:35 AM ET, Mon July 8, 2024
Next year marks the 80th anniversary of V-E Day, or Victory in Europe Day, which marked the end of World War II in Europe. In honor of this milestone, the National WWII Museum will host two river cruises on the Elbe River that will give travelers an opportunity to explore this important moment in world history.
The newly announced Elbe River Cruise collection will include two, 8-day journeys aboard the Viking Beyla: Prague to Berlin from May 1-8, 2025, and Berlin to Prague from May 6-13, 2025.
Both voyages will include onboard scholars and experts. The May 1-8 journey will feature Alexandra Richie, a historian of Germany and Central and Eastern Europe who specializes in defense and security issues, and Michael Neiberg, the chair of war studies in the Department of National Security and Strategy and a professor of history at the US Army War College. The May 6-13 cruise will feature Keith Lowe, author of Inferno and Savage Continent, and Mark Calhoun, the senior historian of the National WWII Museums’ Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy.
“May 8, 1945, marked the official end of World War II in Europe, and this 80th anniversary commemorative cruise on the Elbe River allows us to visit some of the most important landmarks of that time,” says Richie. “This unique itinerary brings us to the center of Hitler's Germany and commemorates the dauntless spirit of the Allies who bravely fought to liberate a continent and, ultimately, the world.”
The cruises will stop in destinations like Theresienstadt and Lidice, Bad Schandau, Dresden, Meissen and Torgau, Magdeburg and Wittenburg, where guests will have an opportunity to participate in expert-led tours.
Guests also have the option to book pre- and post-cruise extensions that range from two to three nights.
“We are reminded of the costs of war as we visit Theresienstadt concentration camp and the lovingly restored city of Dresden, a site of heavy Allied bombing,” says Richie. “Visiting Torgau will be a high point—it is the very place where American and Soviet forces first met in 1945, finally sealing the fate of the Nazis in one of the most famous military linkups of world history.”
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