At Allied headquarters in Reims, France, German General Alfred Jodl signed the instrument of unconditional surrender on behalf of the German High Command, agreeing to end all military operations at 11:01 p.m. the following day. The signing came after Hitler's suicide a week earlier and the collapse of German resistance on all fronts, formally closing nearly six years of war in Europe.
General Dwight Eisenhower refused to attend the signing himself, regarding Jodl and the German delegation with contempt, and had his chief of staff, General Walter Bedell Smith, handle the formalities instead. Jodl signed just after 2:41 a.m. on May 7 in a small red schoolhouse that served as SHAEF headquarters, technically representing the German government though the country's political leadership was in ruins.
Soviet officials, however, were furious that the surrender had been signed in the Western Allies' theater at Reims rather than in Berlin, and insisted on a second, more elaborate ceremony in Soviet-occupied Karlshorst the next day, which the USSR treats as its official Victory Day. This is why Western Europe celebrates VE Day on May 8 while Russia marks it on May 9.
Eisenhower marked the moment in a famously terse telegram to Washington: 'The mission of this Allied force was fulfilled at 0241, local time, May 7th, 1945.' It remains one of the shortest and most quoted announcements in military history.