1945, May 8th, at 18.00 local time. Here (56.4027, 22.3693), about 600 m from the Ruler of Vadakste, in a modest Latvian Customs office at the border with Lithuania, on the 8th of May of 1945, at 18.00 local time (CET+1), the Heeresgruppe Kurland (German Army Group Courland), then encircled by the Red Army, signed a cease-fire to be effective on the same day at 23.00, thus ending WWII on the Eastern front. Communication being severely disrupted, the Heeresgruppe Kurland was unaware of the general cease-fire already signed in Rheims by the German Army and the Allied Forces operating on the Western Front, at 02.41 CET on the 7th of May, which was to be effective at 23.01 CET on the 8th of May. The Heeresgruppe Kurland complied with the ultimatum launched by the Red Army to surrender and lay arms on May, 8th -- and, here in Ezere, 23.01 CET was simply converted into 23.00, local time, full stop. In short, WWII ended here first. As 23.01 CET corresponds to 01.01 on the next day in Moscow, the end of WWII is commemorated in Russia on the 9th of May. The Customs office has been disused since then. The bridge leading to Lithuania, destroyed during the war, has never been rebuild ; a new bridge, about 400 m downsteam, replaced it. The former Customs office now houses a small ethnographic museum, open on appointment.
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