Ahead of the 70th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender May 8, the show that opened Thursday at Berlin’s German Historical Museum offers a snapshot of the impact of defeat, victory and liberation in Germany, the surrounding countries it occupied or annexed, as well as Norway, Britain and the Soviet Union. Personal stories of heroes, villains and victims; photos, videos, posters; and objects such as a Danish bride’s 1946 wedding dress made of silk from a British parachute illustrate the process of building the future. [...] the exhibition also notes that it took German society decades to address many aspects of the Nazi past, and contains artifacts such as an Austrian conservative party’s 1949 election poster fishing for votes from former Nazi supporters. Visitors are greeted by radio recordings from the 12 countries announcing the end of the war, juxtaposed with pictures of people’s reactions: a crying boy, soldiers celebrating, liberated prisoners. A central room detailing some of the grim statistics of the war in Europe — 45 million dead and at least 20 million children who had lost one or both parents — leads into sections on each country, with tiny Luxembourg and the Soviet Union getting equal attention. Each section is illustrated by the stories of three people representing part of their country’s experience — people as diverse as Norwegian collaborationist leader Vidkun Quisling; Pierre Godfrin, who survived the 1944 Nazi massacre in Oradour-sur-Glane, France; and Katharina Brandstetter, found at a home in Austria by U.S.