The image Italy surrenders is one of Fred Stein's most famous street scenes from New York. It shows a portrait of a family reading the newspaper. The title of the photograph is borrowed from the headline printed in bold capital letters on the front page of the newspaper, which a woman sitting in front of a shop door is holding facing the camera. The picture was taken on 8 September 1943, one day after Italy surrendered, in Little Italy, the Italian migrant neighbourhood of New York. It documents – particularly with the reading woman's smile – the great relief with which the emigrated citizens in the American metropolis registered the end of the war in their old home.

Fred Stein, who always rejected posed photography, composes the picture so that it is the child sucking on its bottle at the forefront. After the end of the war, the future belongs to this child, symbolically speaking. Although the child is not aware of the international political meaning of the news yet, this meaning is very clear to the viewer of Italy surrenders. The picture is exemplary of Fred Stein's approach, making contemporary history accessible in the context of simple, private lives.