Closing summary
A group of 78 veterans, many wearing the medals attesting to their second world war service, attended as King Charles led the UK in a two-minute silence. In workplaces, railway stations and shops people stood, heads bowed on the stroke of noon in remembrance. Services and ceremonies were held across the UK and Europe.
Inside Westminster Abbey, it was the veterans who were honoured, by a congregation of royalty, politicians and military. Some in wheelchairs, others leaning heavily on sticks, they were presented with white roses, signifying peace, handed to them by six young people. It was a reminder that as time continues to claim first-hand witnesses to the war, the younger generation will shoulder responsibility for remembrance. Echoes of the dark days of war were woven tightly into the order of service.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer gave a bible reading and wartime favourite The White Cliffs Of Dover was sung by Wicked star Zizi Strallen. Actor Nina Sosanya read a letter written on VE Day by Janet Thornton to her teenage daughters Renee and Pippa, who were away staying in Dorset. She told them it was the “most important day of your life and of the world”, and urged them “enjoy yourselves, shout, scream, sing, wave flags, eat, drink, lemon or barley water, and make it a day of rejoicing”.
An excerpt from Winston Churchill’s 8 May radio broadcast from the Cabinet Office ricocheted off the abbey’s stone walls. His great-great-grandson Alexander Churchill, 10, was given the honour of lighting the VE Day candle and read a prayer for “peace in Europe and across the world”. It was left to the archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, in his address, to remind the congregation that those hopes of VE Day, and all the good that had come as the result of peace, would be sorely tested.
Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York, has warned the “good” resulting from the second world war is “under threat” as King Charles led the UK in commemorating the 80th anniversary of VE Day. Cottrell paid tribute to “those whose sacrifice made our victory possible” against Hitler’s Nazi regime, and said he is praying again for “peace in Europe” amid Russia’s three-year invasion of Ukraine, reports the PA news agency.
Scotland fell silent to remember its wartime heroes, with a series of events taking place around the country to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day. At the Scottish parliament and at public spaces including train stations, a national two-minute silence was observed at midday.
Berlin for the first time observed a public holiday on VE Day, as Germany’s political leaders gathered in the Bundestag lower house of parliament for the central ceremony marking what many Germans call a day of “liberation” from the Nazi dictatorship. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the chamber Germany must never heed the call of extremists trying to shake off the burden of responsibility for the second world war and the Holocaust.
For western Europe, including the UK, VE Day largely heralded the return of liberty and the triumph of democracy, and marked the end of Nazi aggression and occupation, the slaughter of a generation of young men, and the horrors of the Holocaust. Even so, few commemorate it in the same way or even on the same day. Belgium combines its ceremonies with Armistice Day on 11 November, which marks the end of the first world war. The Netherlands and Denmark celebrate Liberation Day on 5 May. Italy, one of Germany’s wartime allies, also marks Liberation Day – victory over Mussolini’s puppet government – but on 25 April.
For much of central and eastern Europe, the end of the second world war means something very different: the beginning of life under a communist regime. Russia itself commemorates VE Day with a huge military parade on 9 May, for the simple reason that when the ceasefire that ended the war came into force at 11.01pm in Berlin on 8 May 1945, it was already the following day in Moscow.
This year, underlining Europe’s ever-present political faultlines, the Kremlin has said Slovakia’s Moscow-friendly prime minister, Robert Fico, and Aleksandar Vučić, Serbia’s ultranationalist president, will attend, despite strong EU criticism. A counter-parade, attended by EU foreign ministers, will be held in Lviv, Ukraine. Some other former east bloc states, from Belarus to Bosnia and Herzegovina, continue to mark Victory Day on 9 May. Many, however, including Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, have switched to the eighth since regaining their independence, choosing not to mark the date they fell under Soviet control.
Eighty years ago, Westminster Abbey opened its doors all day and late into the night for short services as about 25,000 attended to give thanks and to remember those who had made the ultimate sacrifice as VE Day marked the end of almost six years of war in Europe.
On Thursday’s anniversary it was again the focal point of UK national commemorations, with a service of thanksgiving weaving poignant reminders of war’s deprivation and loss with the hopes for the future that historic day had promised.
A group of 78 veterans, many wearing the medals attesting to their second world war service, attended as King Charles led the nation in a two-minute silence.
In workplaces, railway stations and shops people stood, heads bowed on the stroke of noon in remembrance of a day when services and ceremonies were held across the UK and Europe.
Inside the abbey, it was the veterans who were honoured, by a congregation of royalty, politicians and military. With some in wheelchairs, others leaning heavily on sticks, they were presented with white roses, signifying peace and handed to them by six young people. It was a reminder that as time continues to claim those first-hand witnesses to the war, the younger generation will now shoulder responsibility for remembrance.
Echoes of those dark days of war were woven tightly into the order of service.
In a Guardian feature on eye witnesses of the second world war, Aasa Sarnik, 85, recalled her memories as a child living through the war, in a coastal village not far from Estonia’s border with Russia.
She spoke of the tyranny her country experienced immediately after the war when Estonia was annexed by the Soviet Union, and would spend more than four decades under Soviet control.
Maris Hellrand, the Estonian journalist who carried out the interview with Sarnik, is currently in Narva, a city on the Estonia-Russia border, which is sometimes described as the EU’s most Russian city.
Standing on the bridge over the River Narva, which flows into the Baltic Sea, and on the eastern bank of which sits Russia, she just sent us this short on-the-ground report as spectators gather, preparing, she says, “for the blast of Russian propaganda tomorrow from across the river”.
She tells us:
I’m standing on the bridge over the border river between Estonia and Russia in Narva. I can see the castle on the Russian side. A huge stage and screens are being set up to celebrate ‘Victory Day’ tomorrow. They are still working and checking the lights. There are huge posters saying: ‘we remember’ and ‘thank you’.
As a reply the castle on the Estonian side has been decorated with EU and Estonian and Ukrainian flags, and tomorrow morning, by sunrise, it’s expected that they will erect a poster stating ‘Putin: war criminal’. This same poster has been put up there for the last two years.
Pedestrians are crossing the bridge, mainly coming from Russia into Estonia. The border crossing has been closed for car traffic since February 2024 last year, because of construction work on the Russian side, so only pedestrians are able to cross the border right now.
The stage area next to the Russian castle, Maris explains, was only erected three years ago. Where it stands, there used to be a thick forest. She adds:
It’s been constructed as a stage or platform, specifically in order to blast this propaganda across the river to Narva and Europe. I can also see some Russian border guards controlling along the path.
What’s new this year is that they’ve set up two huge screens around hundred metres long each side of the bridge, increasing the space on which they can project their messages.
Updated
Mariia Sinhayevska was 11 when the Germans occupied her village, near Zaporizhzhia in south-eastern Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. She can still remember some German words from the year she spent in school under occupation. The soldiers were friendly, she said, though not if you were suspected of being a Communist or a Jew.
“There was a place about three kilometres away where people used to say the ground was breathing; it was where the Germans put the bodies of all the people they had shot,” she said.
When the war ended, Sinhayevska trained as a welder in a Zaporizhzhia factory, and worked in various jobs until her retirement in 1980. Now, at 95, war has come again, with the frontline just half an hour away from Zaporizhzhia and regular incoming fire not far from the home where she has lived since 1954.
“I hardly go out now, this war is so scary, maybe even more scary than that war,” she said.
A granddaughter who lived with her until three years ago left at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, to the safety of western Europe with her children, leaving behind rooms filled with religious icons, teddy bears and memories. Lonely and frightened, though with the stoicism of someone for whom life has never been easy, Sinhayevska does her own cooking and cleaning, and hopes for the war to end.
Here are some more images from today in the UK, France and Germany:
Here are some images of reenactors in Paris, France, pictured before a parade as part of ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of VE Day:
Copenhagen, 7 May
Germany’s last two seaworthy big warships, the cruisers the Prinz Eugen and the Nuremberg, are lying in the north port here with their German crews aboard, having apparently made no attempt to flee when Denmark was liberated.
With them are various anti-submarine craft and 54 German merchant ships aggregating some 150,000 tons.
The entrance to the docks where the ships lie is still guarded by German soldiers armed with tommy guns and rifles, and in streets around the dock area German soldiers come and go pretty much as they please, brushing shoulders with British paratroops; the Germans ostentatiously ignore their ex-enemy’s presence, but the British and Danes are in a position to find the whole situation ridiculous.
Meanwhile discipline in some of the German warships has suffered in a fashion reminiscent in a small way of what happened in October 1918. On the deck of a minesweeper I saw a crowd of German sailors gathered drinking, singing, and playing an accordion.
When they caught sight of me they started cheering and yelling “Hullo, Tommy,” “Good old Tommy, come and have a drink.” I walked over to their ship and started to talk to them from the quayside when a petty officer appeared on deck with a tommy-gun in his hand which he pointed at me whilst ordering the men below.
A small, pale, harassed-looking German naval commander had driven up to the Hotel Angleterre in a Volkswagen and announced to the hall porter and to me that he had come to discuss the surrender of the German warships with the competent British officer.
No interest in ship
This officer was not in the hotel at the time, so that for a while there was to be observed the ridiculous spectacle of a German officer roaming through the corridors of the hotel from room to room trying to find someone competent to receive him.
For five years the British Navy and the R.A.F. had been hunting the Prinz Eugen, and under and above the seas hundreds of lives had been lost. Now suddenly there was just no interest in the ship at all.
All this business of the German crews remaining in the ships and the German troops in Denmark retaining their arms is part of a very complicated situation rising out of the fact that there are 300,000 German troops in the country and very few British to whom they can surrender.
Considerations of prestige, they say, forbid them to surrender to the Danes though when they leave the country they have agreed to leave behind their heavy weapons. Neither the Danes nor the British are much interested in German ideas of prestige and have only one concern – to get the Germans put out of the country as quickly as possible.
If this can be done by allowing the Germans to march out armed until they reach the British lines where the weapons can be collected they are willing to agree.
This is an edited extract, read more of the Manchester Guardian’s VE Day coverage
How is VE Day commemorated across Europe?
For western Europe, including the UK, VE Day largely heralded the return of liberty and the triumph of democracy, and marked the end of Nazi aggression and occupation, the slaughter of a generation of young men, and the horrors of the Holocaust.
Even so, few commemorate it in the same way or even on the same day. Belgium combines its ceremonies with Armistice Day on 11 November, which marks the end of the first world war. The Netherlands and Denmark celebrate Liberation Day on 5 May. Italy, one of Germany’s wartime allies, also marks Liberation Day – victory over Mussolini’s puppet government – but on 25 April.
For much of central and eastern Europe, the end of the second world war means something very different: the beginning of life under a communist regime.
Russia itself commemorates VE Day with a huge military parade on 9 May, for the simple reason that when the ceasefire that ended the war came into force at 11.01pm in Berlin on 8 May 1945, it was already the following day in Moscow.
This year, underlining Europe’s ever-present political faultlines, the Kremlin has said Slovakia’s Moscow-friendly prime minister, Robert Fico, and Aleksandar Vučić, Serbia’s ultranationalist president, will attend, despite strong EU criticism. A counter-parade, attended by EU foreign ministers, will be held in Lviv, Ukraine.
Some other former east bloc states, from Belarus to Bosnia and Herzegovina, continue to mark Victory Day on 9 May. Many, however, including Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, have switched to the eighth since regaining their independence, choosing not to mark the date they fell under Soviet control.
Earlier, during a thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey, UK prime minister Keir Starmer gave a bible reading and wartime favourite The White Cliffs Of Dover was sung by Zizi Strallen.
Actor Nina Sosanya read a letter written on VE Day by Janet Thornton to her teenage daughters Renee and Pippa, who were away staying in Dorset.
She told them it was the “most important day of your life and of the world”, and urged them “enjoy yourselves, shout, scream, sing, wave flags, eat, drink, lemon or barley water, and make it a day of rejoicing”.
Thornton’s grandson Colin Vallance-Owen was in the abbey to hear his grandmother’s words.
He told the BBC:
My grandmother wrote the letter on VE Day itself. She was away from her daughters. They were in Sherbourne, so she wrote it on VE Day. She seemed to have got the moment.
She felt very very seriously that this was a very, very important day for all of us.
He described Thornton, who died in 1986, as “absolutely tiny with a huge personality”, adding: “It’s a bit of history really.”
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has criticised Russia, saying “victory and true remembrance are not with those who hold ‘parades’ but with those on whose side the truth is”.
Russia commemorates VE Day with a huge military parade on 9 May, because when the ceasefire that ended the second world war came into force at 11.01pm in Berlin on 8 May 1945, it was already the following day in Moscow.
In a post on X, Zelenskyy wrote on Thursday:
In attempting to appropriate Ukraine, Russia is appropriating another nation’s memory and distorting history.
That is why not only today, on the Day of Remembrance and Victory over nazism, but always, it is worth remembering: Ukrainians made their great contribution to that victory. They stopped a global evil with their own blood.
Because more than 8 million Ukrainians fought against nazism – not only as part of the Soviet army. Tens of thousands served in the Allied armies. Hundreds of thousands fought in partisan units and resistance movements.
In that war, we had no rear – all our land was one continuous frontline, a staging ground, an open wound. Every city, every village suffered. Every home and every family.
And we will not surrender this memory to a new, Russian nazism – just as we will not surrender our present to it. Victory and true remembrance are not with those who hold ‘parades’ but with those on whose side the truth is. Let us honor our contribution to the fight against evil. And our present, in which we are fighting it once again.
Updated
Here are some more images from today coming in via the newswires:
Scotland fell silent to remember its wartime heroes, with a series of events taking place around the country to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day.
At the Scottish parliament and at public spaces including train stations, a national two-minute silence was observed at midday.
Holyrood presiding officer, Alison Johnson, said:
We honour the generation that gave so much to secure our peace and freedoms.
We owe it to them to strive for that peace, to remember and to encourage future generations to remember.
Party leaders also marked the anniversary in a series of tributes before first minister’s questions.
John Swinney paid tribute to his uncle Cpl Tom Hunter of 43 Royal Marine Commando, who died on 3 April 1945 in Comacchio, Italy. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for offering himself as a target to German guns in order to save his own troop during the battle.
According to the PA news agenvy, the first minister said:
I think of my uncle, Thomas Hunter, killed in Italy protecting his comrades 35 days before the end of the war.
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said:
None of us here can truly appreciate the selfless sacrifice, duty and bravery of the greatest generation who fought and died for our freedom.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said:
We remember those who gave everything for the fight against fascism, the greatest tyranny we have ever faced.
Scottish Green co-leader Lorna Slater said: “We cannot be complacent in the face of growing threats of fascism, international violence, hatred and oppression,” while Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton added:
We must rededicate ourselves to the promise of that peace and its furtherance for our children and theirs to come.
A service of thanksgiving took place at Glasgow Cathedral at 1pm, with guests including representatives from the military, veterans’ organisations, emergency services and religious groups.
Members of the Royal British Legion, the Royal Air Forces Association, and the armed forces charity the SSAFA took part in the service, along with their families.
Archbishop of York warns 'good' that came after VE Day is 'under threat again'
Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York, has warned the “good” resulting from the second world war is “under threat” as King Charles led the UK in commemorating the 80th anniversary of VE Day.
Cottrell paid tribute to “those whose sacrifice made our victory possible” against Hitler’s Nazi regime, and said he is praying again for “peace in Europe” amid Russia’s three-year invasion of Ukraine, reports the PA news agency.
He spoke during a service of thanksgiving to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, with a number of veterans among the Westminster Abbey congregation featuring the king, Queen Camilla, Prince and Princess of Wales and prime minister Keir Starmer, who read the lesson.
In his address, the Cottrell said:
Today, on this 80th anniversary, we give hearty and mighty thanks for those whose sacrifice made our victory possible. We pray again for peace in Europe.
We salute those who were so committed to the ideas and ideals they fought to uphold, that in the postwar era rebuilt the world to reflect those beliefs.
From the National Health Service to the United Nations itself, we strove to build a world that shows how we belong to one another and have responsibilities to each other across boundaries of class, race and nation.
Those first outpourings of joy on the first VE Day led to something good, because in our opposition of what was worst in us, we discovered what was best.
All this good is under threat again in our world today.
Europe’s major nations including the UK are planning on stepping up spending on their armed forces in response to the changing world order ushered in by US president Donald Trump. Russia is seen as a growing threat in eastern Europe and there is economic uncertainty for many nations coming to terms with the US’s new tariffs.
Berlin for the first time observed a public holiday on VE Day, as Germany’s political leaders gathered in the Bundestag lower house of parliament for the central ceremony marking what many Germans call a day of “liberation” from the Nazi dictatorship.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the chamber Germany must never heed the call of extremists trying to shake off the burden of responsibility for the second world war and the Holocaust.
“It was Germans that unleashed this criminal war and dragged Europe with it into the abyss,” he told the assembled guests including newly elected chancellor Friedrich Merz, who earlier laid a wreath at a memorial for victims of war.
“It was Germans who committed the crimes against humanity of the Shoah. And it was Germans who were unwilling and unable to throw off the yoke of the Nazi regime.”
It was the first major ceremony on VE Day in the Reichstag building, its walls still covered in graffiti left by Red Army soldiers during the Battle of Berlin, since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The ambassadors of both Russia and Belarus were barred from participating.
“Tomorrow we will see the victory parades in Moscow in the name of liberators from back, supposedly justifying a war against Ukraine today,” the speaker of the Bundestag, Julia Klöckner, said.
“What an abuse of history! Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol. And again girls and women fall victim to sexual violence, used as a weapon of war.”
Steinmeier acknowledged the role of Soviet forces in defeating Nazi Germany, noting that at least 13 million Red Army soldiers, including Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and others, lost their lives in the fight, and as many civilians.
“But the liberators of Auschwitz have become new aggressors,” he said. “With the war against Ukraine, Putin left our European security order in rubble. It was the source of our hope that we had learned the lesson from the horrors of war once and for all.”
King Charles, the queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales and other members of the royal family met veterans in the nave at the end of the service.
William was seen placing his hand on one veteran’s shoulder as he chatted to the former serviceman who stood to speak with the prince and Kate.
The princess crouched down to meet one woman, holding her hand as she chatted to the veteran, who was wearing medals and sat in her wheelchair.
King Charles was seen deep in conversation with a number of veterans, bending close to speak to them.
Winston Churchill’s great-great-grandson Alexander Churchill, 10, lit the VE Day 80th candle of peace during a service at Westminster Abbey today.
The youngster, dressed in a suit and tie, stepped forward and made his way up the steps in front of the altar, where he was handed a flame to light the large cream church candle.
Six young members of the congregation handed out white roses, carried in wicker baskets, to second world war veterans seated in the nave.
Veterans were seen to nod and say “thank you” as they received the symbol of peace.
Alexander later read a prayer for “peace in Europe and across the world”, and for the “sacrifice of those who have gone before us to be honoured in the defence of liberty, justice and peace”.
Updated
During an ‘Hour of Remembrance’ in the Bundestag, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of the war, which has just concluded, German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier sharply criticised Russian president Vladimir Putin, for what he called his “historical lies”.
Speaking to a full house of MPs including the new government of chancellor Friedrich Merz, as well as Holocaust survivors and other specially invited guests, Steinmeier condemned the Kremlin’s insistence that its war against Ukraine is a “continuation of the fight against fascism”.
“Putin’s war of aggression, his campaign against a free, democratic country, has nothing in common with the fight against National Socialist tyranny in World War II,” he said.
He praised the contribution of the Red Army in the liberation of Germany from National Socialism, which included, he said “Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians” (Georgians, Poles and others) all of who fought under it, as well as for liberating the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz, in January 1945.
“At least 13 million of these soldiers and twice as many civilians lost their lives,” he said. “The Red Army liberated Auschwitz. We will not forget any of that.”
But, he added, with his “historical lies”, Putin was “whitewashing the imperial madness, grave injustice and the most serious of crimes.”
He said it was painful to acknowledge that the “liberators of Auschwitz have become the new aggressors”.
The ambassadors of Russia and Belarus were not invited to the memorial service in the Bundestag, just as they have been excluded from other ceremonies around Germany to commemorate the end of the second world war.
Updated
Here are some images of the two-minute silence being observed in the UK:
UK prime minister Keir Starmer gave a bible reading at the service of thanskgiving at Westminster Abbey, before the congregration sang I Vow To Thee My Country.
The lyrics were written by Cecil Spring Rice in 1918, the year the first world war ended.
Updated
Here are some images coming in via the newswires of the thanksgiving service taking place at Westminster Abbey in London now:
A national two-minute silence was held at midday in the UK. King Charles, Queen Camilla and the Prince and Princess of Wales stood motionless around the Grave of the Unknown Warrior in solemn tribute to those who fought for freedom during the second world war.
The 78 veterans amid the congregation joined in the moment of reflection as they observed the silence.
Peers in the House of Lords bowed their heads. A number of members of the upper chamber, including the lord apeaker, are in attendance at the thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey.
King Charles and the Prince of Wales have laid wreaths of seasonal flowers, which would have been in bloom in May 1945, at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior.
King Charles did so on behalf of the UK and the Commonwealth, and Prince William for the veterans and the wartime generation, with 99-year-old Ken Hay, who served in the 4th Dorset infantry regiment, at their side.
Updated
Thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey begins after two-minute silence
The thanksgiving service, marking the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) at Westminster Abbey, has begun after a two-minute silence was held across the UK.
King Charles, Queen Camilla and the Prince and Princess of Wales are in attendance, along with UK prime minister Keir Starmer.
There are 1,800 guests in attendance at today’s service, including royals, veterans, politicians, officials, guests and other public figures.
Updated
The thanksgiving service in Westminster Abbey will begin with a two-minute silence at 12pm BST (11am GMT) which will also be observed across the country, to remember Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender, which took effect on 8 May 1945.
Updated
A group of young people attending the VE Day service at Westminster Abbey said they were there to challenge stereotypes about their generation, reports the PA news agency.
Georgina Heron-Edmends, 19, Henry Hughes, 21, and Sophia Kaur Badhan, 24, are from Youth Collaborators and are working on a report to influence government strategy on young people.
Kaur Badhan said:
We think it’s really important for young people to be invited to this today.
There’s been some coverage in the media suggesting we aren’t interested in VE Day or don’t know what it is – we’re here to challenge that.
We’re very interested – we think it’s really important and it’s a privilege to be here.
The UK prime minister Keir Starmer, along with other politicians, officials, veterans and guests, has arrived for the thanksgiving service marking the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) at Westminster Abbey.
Here are some images coming in via the newswires:
‘Shrapnel from the grenades was flying over our hedge’
Aasa Sarnik, 85, from the Estonian village of Pihlaspea, was five in 1945. Soviet troops had invaded the Baltic countries – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – in 1940, but were pushed out by the Nazis a year later. The Red Army retook the countries in 1944 and occupied them until the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
“In September 1944, we had packed all our things, ready to flee to Sweden [as the Soviet army was coming]. But at the last moment, my parents decided that we would stay.
“I remember the big battles that took place here on the sea. There were German ships everywhere and the Russian aeroplanes flew over our house and started shooting at them. My father called me to come out and see how a Russian aeroplane, which had been hit by ammunition from a ship, was falling into the sea. Shrapnel from the grenades was flying over our hedge. When the next plane started its descent, we all ran into the cellar.
“While others in Europe might have been celebrating, May 1945 here was a time of fear, which I remember well. No one was cheering. We were just scared.
“Soon after their arrival, the Russian army started to control the seashore near our house – the sand on the beach was flattened every night so that they could detect any footprints. Sometimes they would even come to the houses at night to check and measure our footprints.
“All the boats were confiscated and access to the sea was barred. Even children’s rubber dinghies were forbidden.
“I remember how in 1945 German PoWs were held captive by the Red Army in our village, behind a thick barbed wire fence. My mum sewed me an apron and baked some bread. I went to bring some bread to them, even though I was quite scared, but I made it back safely.
“I’m afraid, of course, nowadays, especially because I’m constantly following these world events. The sense of foreboding similar to what we felt back then is here again.
“Of course, the big plus nowadays … is that we’re a part of Nato together with Finland and Sweden. But I tell you I simply don’t want to experience another war. One is enough, thank you very much.”
Updated
'Cost of peace must never be forgotten', says Benn, as Northern Ireland mark 80th anniversary of VE Day
The 80th anniversary of VE Day is also being marked with events across Northern Ireland.
Secretary of state Hilary Benn described an opportunity to remember the “huge sacrifice made by that great generation” at the end of the second world war in Europe, reports the PA news agency.
On Wednesday night, some landmark buildings in Belfast were lit up to mark VE Day, including Belfast City Hall in red, as well as parliament buildings in blue.
Later on Thursday, beacons will be lit across a number of locations including Bangor, Newtownards, Lisburn, Armagh, Enniskillen, Coleraine, Derry and Coleraine. Benn took part in a number of visits across the region.
He officially opened a special second world war exhibition at Antrim Castle Gardens, before travelling to the Ulster Aviation Society, where he met veteran Fred Jennings.
Benn also visited the NI War Memorial Museum, which focuses on Northern Ireland’s role in the second world war and the impact that the war had on its people, and attended a service of emembrance at St Patrick’s Church of Ireland Cathedral in Armagh.
Benn said the cost of peace must never be forgotten. He said:
VE Day 80 is our opportunity to remember and to honour the extraordinary courage of that great generation of World War Two veterans.
Today should remind us all that the cost of peace must never be forgotten.
As we hear the stories of those who served and express our profound gratitude to them, let us remember that it was their sacrifice that enabled us to live in peace and freedom.
Updated
‘I lit a candle and cried like a river’
2Lt Józef Kwiatkowski, 98, born in Łuck in Volhynia, then part of Poland, now in Ukraine, was part of the First Polish Army, 180,000 of whose members, many former underground fighters, fought alongside the Red Army and allied forces in April and May 1945 to liberate Poland from fascism.
“I remember the stench of death, the destruction, the dirt, the lice, the ulcers, the hate and the mistrust of those days. War is a terrible thing.
“On 3 March 1945, I was walking with my comrade Tadeusz ‘Tadek’ Sokół and we were tasked with fixing telephone cables. When we reached the spot where a cable had been damaged, a German soldier pounced out. Another was hiding behind a tree, but I couldn’t shoot at him because he was behind Tadek. Then, the first German more or less cut Tadek in half with the burst of fire from his rifle, whereupon I killed him, and took the other prisoner.
“For decades, I’d wanted to find Tadek’s grave, but was never able to locate it. I had never forgotten this jolly chap from Lvov [now Lviv in Ukraine], who had made us laugh with his Yiddish songs and hadn’t had the chance to live a full life like I have. I named my own son after him.
“Then, just before the pandemic, all the Polish war graves information was digitalised. My carer, Łukasz, found in eight minutes what I’d spent 80 years searching for. We went to visit his grave on the 80th anniversary in Drawsko, north-western Poland. I lit a candle and cried like a river. I wouldn’t say I quite feel closure though. I still ask myself: might I have managed to save him?
“When the war ended, I was in the town of Sandau on the River Elbe, where we met American forces and celebrated together. I remember the shock of the profound silence – no explosions, no whistling bullets, no noise, just quiet.
“The current war in Ukraine fills me with anxiety. It’s a failure of humanity that we have not managed to stop the Russian aggressor and says to me that we learned few lessons from the second world war.”
Updated
Eighty years ago today, on 8 May 1945, the second world war in Europe came to an end with the unconditional surrender of Germany’s armed forces. The number of people who remember the war – and how it finished – decreases every year, even as European security feels ever more precarious.
The Guardian has spoken to seven people, aged between 85 and 100, from Estonia, Poland, Britain, Germany and Romania, about their memories.
Here is Dorothea Barron’s story:
‘At last you could turn a light on and not have to pull the curtains’
Dorothea Barron, 100, joined the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) aged 18 in 1943. The retired art teacher, a great-grandmother, still teaches yoga and lives in Hertfordshire in the UK.
“I grew up in Hampton right on the Thames. And, of course, the Thames was like a beacon day and night. You can’t disguise the glint of moonlight or any light on water. So we were being bombed.
“At night, we’d all pile down into the shelter which we had helped to dig out in our garden, and then cover over with corrugated iron. The earth you had dug out you piled on top to disguise it so it didn’t glint in the moonlight.
“I joined the WRNS when I was 18. I was a visual signaller, which meant that I had to go out in all weathers to signal to ships coming into harbour. They also flew flags at the mast to say ‘we need water’ or ‘we have a casualty on board’ – things like that.
“We also took part in training the boat crews who took the troops off the big liners and transported them to the waters off Normandy for the D-day landings.
“When Germany surrendered, I was based in the Isle of Wight. There was just sheer delight. We all went completely mad. We were broadcasting over loud hailers to all the ships. We were talking to each other in morse code and semaphore.
“I was in a signal tower somewhere. Out on the streets there was cheering and singing and dancing and everything. The ships dressed in celebration. It was wonderful. It was such a relief. Relief that we’d got rid of nazism.
“I don’t think [people] can conceive at all about the relief. At last you could turn a light on and not have to pull the curtains. Yes, the freedom, the idea of freedom again.
“But there was also the remembrances, the friends who you’d lost, kids you’d grown up with who had been shot down, out of the sky or on the land.
“Nobody wins a war. Nobody. Everybody loses. And as soon as people begin to realise this, perhaps women’s common sense will prevail. The women have to pick up the pieces after a war, have to reconstruct families and homes.”
Dorothea is a passionate supporter of the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans and recently launched its Our Heroes Fund, to raise money for future trips for veterans to the continent and across the UK.
Updated
Much of western Europe marks VE Day on 8 May, but the unconditional military surrender that ended the second world war in Europe was actually signed the day before, at 2.41am in the morning on the seventh, in Reims, eastern France.
As this story published this week explains, Joseph Stalin refused to acknowledge that capitulation and demanded a symbolic second surrender be signed in Berlin, where Nazi Germany’s aggression began – and which, coincidentally, was in Soviet hands.
The renowned German film director Wim Wenders, now nearly 80, has made a short film – less than five minutes long – documenting the now largely forgotten Reims surrender and reflecting on the meaning of freedom and the fragility of peace.
“From my childhood onward, I have lived 80 years in peace,” he says in the film. Now, 80 years after the end of the war, “we Europeans are realizing again that peace cannot be taken for granted. It is up to us to take the keys to freedom into our own hands”.
You can watch the film, which includes archive footage of the capitulation and scenes of Wenders walking around the small museum that now occupies the schoolrooms where Gen Dwight D Eisenhower’s supreme allied headquarters were, here:
Starmer says increase in UK defence spending echoes promises made at end of second world war
Prime minister Keir Starmer said the increase in defence spending to counter Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Europe would benefit businesses and families across the UK.
Eighty years after the end of the war against Nazi Germany, the prime minister said “the battle lines in Ukraine” were now “the frontline for western values”.
According to the PA news agency, he said his commitment to increase military spending to a 2.5% share of the economy from April 2027 would result in a “defence dividend” for companies. Starmer said the government would set out a “major overhaul of the British armed services”, with the “root and branch” strategic defence review due in the coming weeks.
On the 80th anniversary of VE Day he said the commitment echoed the promises made at the end of the second world war. It was “in investment in British pride and the British people to build a nation that once again lives up to the promises made to that generation who fought for our values, our freedom and our security”.
Speaking at the London Defence Conference, the prime minister confirmed a £563m contract for Rolls-Royce for the maintenance of Britain’s fleet of Typhoon fighter jets.
The UK has committed to spend 2.5% of gross domestic product – a measure of the size of the economy – on defence from April 2027, rising to 3% during the next parliament.
Starmer said:
This isn’t just a fight for freedom and democracy in Ukraine. No, it’s a new, more dangerous era of history, a period of global instability that fuels insecurity for working people here at home.
The British people have already paid a price for Putin’s aggression in Ukraine with rising bills and prices.
Russia already menaces our security. They’ve launched cyber-attacks on our NHS spread disinformation online, and we cannot forget, just a few years ago, a chemical weapons attack on our streets in Salisbury in broad daylight in the heart of England.
No, the battle lines in Ukraine are the frontline for western values, and the argument that defines this age is simple: national security is economic security and that’s why we’re boosting defence spending with the largest sustained increase since the cold war.
Updated
Seventy eight veterans are expected to attend the thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey alongside UK prime minister Keir Starmer, who will give a bible reading.
On VE Day – 8 May 1945 – short “thanksgiving for victory” services were held every hour in the abbey from 9am to 10pm, with an estimated 25,000 people attending.
It is 'very important' for young to thank veterans, says Churchill's great-great grandson
Winston Churchill’s great-great-grandson has said it is “very important” for his generation to thank second world war veterans and to “never forget” those who fought for freedom in Europe.
Alexander Churchill, 10, will take part in a thanksgiving service marking the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) at Westminster Abbey on Thursday. He will light a candle of peace at the service, while young members of the congregation hand out white roses to veterans.
Speaking to the PA news agency before the event, Alexander said he felt “very honoured” to have been chosen to participate in the commemoration which will be attended by King Charles, Queen Camilla and the Prince and Princess of Wales.
He added:
My great-great-grandfather’s very important to us and we’re just very proud to know that he is part of our family and also I think it’s very important for our generation, my generation, to say thank you to all the veterans and everyone who took part in the war because I think that’s very important.
I think people can learn that they should never forget all of the people who have sacrificed and helped us restore freedom to England and Europe and also I think it’s very important that they should carry on fighting for freedom.
Of his part in the service, he added:
I feel a bit nervous, but I think that’s all right.
The live televised service will begin with a national two-minute silence in honour of those who made sacrifices during the conflict, both on the front line and at home, to protect people’s freedom and shared values.
Pubs in England and Wales will be allowed to stay open until 1am to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day.
Pubs have previously been allowed to stay open late when England played in the semi-finals and final of Euro 2024 and for Queen Elizabeth II’s jubilee.
“VE Day 1945 was a day of riotous enjoyment for many in the capital,” says author Mark Ellis, who specialises in wartime Britain.
There was dancing on the streets and the pubs stayed open late. Churchill made sure to check in the morning with the Ministry of Food that beer supplies in London would not run out.
Another from the Guardian archive:
St Peter Port, Guernsey
I watched the final surrender of the German garrison in the Channel Islands, and half an hour later I saw the delirious joy of the freedom that surrender brought. I saw, as I landed with the first British soldiers of the forces of freedom, scenes that were almost indescribable – the tears and cheers which 22 men of the Royal Artillery released as they came to St Peter Port to take over the garrison, which had been commanded by the German Vice-Admiral Huffmeier.
This handful of artillerymen who went to take over an island with a garrison of ten thousand Germans, oldish soldiers, went ashore in a German trawler flying the White Ensign. The police inspector and a sergeant, Guernsey men, were the unofficial reception party on the dock, and both of them were choking back the tears when, speechless, they grasped our hands.
The tiny force formed up on the docks, fixed bayonets, and marched towards the dock gates. There, behind those gates, was a seething, cheering, crying mob of men, women and children. Over them the church bells of St Peter Port were clanging tumultuously, every house had its union jack and bunting, saved through five long desperate wearing years for this moment.
The heroism of soldiers from India, Africa and the Caribbean is too often airbrushed, as is the struggle of those who resisted colonial powers, says writer and sociology professor Gary Younge, in an opinion piece for the Guardian.
You can read it here:
What is VE Day?
Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) on 8 May 1945 was the day the allies accepted Nazi Germany’s surrender in the war in Europe. The war in the East did not end until 15 August 1945, when Japan surrendered on a day celebrated as Victory over Japan Day (VJ Day).
At 3pm BST Winston Churchill spoke to the nation and announced that Germany had signed an unconditional surrender of all German land, sea and air forces in Europe to the Allied Expeditionary Forces and Soviet High Command. “Hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight tonight,” he said.
Later he made another speech, to cheering crowds, after he had made his way down Whitehall and on to the balcony of the ministry of health. Crowds had massed in Trafalgar Square and along the Mall to Buckingham Palace.
My dear friends, this is your hour. This is not victory of a party or of any class. It’s a victory of the great British nation as a whole. We were the first, in this ancient island, to draw the sword against tyranny. After a while we were left all alone against the most tremendous military power that has been seen. We were all alone for a whole year.
There we stood, alone. Did anyone want to give in? Were we down-hearted?
The lights went out and the bombs came down. But every man, woman and child in the country had no thought of quitting the struggle. London can take it.
So we came back after long months from the jaws of death, out of the mouth of hell, while all the world wondered. When shall the reputation and faith of this generation of English men and women fail?
I say that in the long years to come not only will the people of this island but of the world, wherever the bird of freedom chirps in human hearts, look back to what we’ve done and they will say: ‘Do not despair, do not yield to violence and tyranny, march straightforward and die if need be-unconquered.’
Now we have emerged from one deadly struggle – a terrible foe has been cast on the ground and awaits our judgment and our mercy.
But there is another foe who occupies large portions of the British empire, a foe stained with cruelty and greed – the Japanese. I rejoice we can all take a night off today and another day tomorrow.
Tomorrow our great Russian allies will also be celebrating victory and after that we must begin the task of rebuilding our hearth and homes, doing our utmost to make this country a land in which all have a chance, in which all have a duty, and we must turn ourselves to fulfil our duty to our own countrymen, and to our gallant allies of the United States who were so foully and treacherously attacked by Japan.
We will go hand and hand with them.
Even if it is a hard struggle we will not be the ones who will fail.
Meanwhile, Scottish secretary Ian Murray is set to visit Lady Haig’s Poppy Factory in Edinburgh, where he will meet 99-year-old VE Day veterans Margaret Landels and George McLeod, as well as a number of other military veterans.
The factory has been producing poppies in Scotland since 1926, and its team of ex-service men and women produce millions of poppies and tens of thousands of wreaths, remembrance symbols and long-stem poppies each year.
According to the PA news agency, Murray said ahead of the visit:
VE Day is a moment for us all to give thanks to the wartime generation. We thank all those who served at home and abroad, who gave so much to ensure the freedoms we enjoy today.
Of course, the war was not over until VJ Day, but VE Day marked a crucial turning point in the war and in our history, and it is right that we continue to mark it 80 years on.
The 80th anniversary of VE Day is also being marked in Scottish government buildings, where a two-minute silence will be observed at midday.
The Scottish government’s Victoria Quay and St Andrew’s House buildings in Edinburgh will also continue to be lit up in red as part of a campaign to light significant buildings across the UK.
Edinburgh Castle was among the buildings to be lit up in red on Tuesday in the run-up to the anniversary.
Memorial events are also to continue in Lerwick aboard vessels that arrived there from Norway on Tuesday, in commemoration of the Shetland ‘Bus’ that operated between Scotland and Norway during the war.
Scotland will pay tribute to its wartime heroes with events taking place around the country to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day.
A service of thanksgiving will take place at Glasgow Cathedral at 1pm, with guests including representatives from the military, veterans’ organisations, emergency services and religious groups. Members of the Royal British Legion, the Royal Air Forces Association (RAFA), and the Soldiers’, Sailors’ and Airmen’s Families Association (SSAFA) will be taking part in the service, along with their families, reports the PA news agency.
A number of elected officials will also be in attendance, including deputy first minister Kate Forbes and Scotland Office minister Kirsty McNeill.
Speaking before the service McNeill said:
It’s a huge privilege to attend the VE Day Commemoration in Glasgow to honour all the men and women in Scotland who served during the second world war, and also to recognise the great sacrifice of the people of Glasgow during the Clydebank blitz in March 1941.
We owe our lives to those who served, and what will be a moving ceremony in Glasgow Cathedral is a fitting reminder of that.
Lord Provost of Glasgow, Jacqueline McLaren, said:
Thursday‘s service in Glasgow Cathedral is a time for us to come together to remember and reflect on the sacrifices made, courage displayed and the resilience of those who put their lives on the line to keep us safe and help build a better world.
It’s also a day to rejoice in peace and freedom, sometimes things that we take for granted. I hope as many people as possible can come along to join us in tribute and celebration.
Rev Mark Johnstone, minister at Glasgow Cathedral, told the PA news agency:
We look forward to welcoming people from all walks of life, people of faith and none, as we reflect, give thanks and pray for a better tomorrow.
Although there are increasingly few veterans still alive, the world we live in today was shaped by the outcome of the second world war.
Taiwan marks 80th anniversary of VE Day by highlighting threats from China
Taiwan marked the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day on Thursday by making broad comparisons to threats from China, whose leader Xi Jinping was in Russia for commemorations as Moscow continues its invasion of Ukraine.
“Peace is priceless, and war has no winners. History has taught us that no matter the driving reason or ideology, military aggression against another country is an unjust crime that is bound to fail,” Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te told diplomats in Taipei, reports the Associated Press (AP).
“Authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy, and greater inequality,” he added. Turning more directly to China’s threats, Lai said that both Taiwan and Europe were “now facing the threat of a new authoritarian bloc.”
Lai said:
We are seeing our decades-old undersea cables, crucial for communications and cybersecurity, being sabotaged. We are seeing external interference in our elections, crucial for healthy democratic development, through the spread of misinformation and disinformation, sowing intentional division in society. We are seeing our fair, free and open international rules-based markets being tested by all manner of gray-zone activities, dumping, pressures and intrusions.
The AP reports that Lai’s remarks came during Taiwan’s first-ever official commemoration of VE Day and at a time when Taiwan is making a diplomatic push for closer ties with fellow democracies that nevertheless have no formal ties with the island in deference to Beijing. Former president Tsai Ing-wen is visiting Lithuania and Denmark from Friday, while foreign affairs minister Lin Chia-lung is visiting Texas.
Lai said that those who cherish peace “cannot sit idly by and allow aggression. The outbreak of the war in Europe certainly had much to do with an authoritarian regime seeking to satisfy its expansionary ambitions, but its wider spread throughout Europe had much more to do with a lack of vigilance toward acts of aggression”.
Updated
The sacrifices of second world war veterans and their generation will be commemorated during a national service of thanksgiving in London, marking the 80th anniversary of VE Day.
King Charles and Queen Camilla will be joined by the Prince and Princess of Wales, prime minister Keir Starmer, veterans and others at Westminster Abbey to recognise the milestone.
On 8 May 1945 the nation celebrated Victory in Europe (VE) Day with church bells ringing out across the country and people gathering to revel in the end of hostilities, with crowds famously gathering outside Buckingham Palace calling for King George VI.
After almost six years of fighting against Hitler’s Nazi regime peace was declared, with only the conflict against Japan to be concluded.
The PA news agency reports that during the service 10-year-old Alexander Churchill, the great-great-grandson of wartime prime minister Winston Churchill, will light a candle of peace as young members of the congregation hand out white roses to second world war veterans.
After a national two-minute silence is observed, the king and Prince William will lay wreaths of seasonal flowers, which would have been in bloom in May 1945, at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior.
King Charles will do so on behalf of the nation and the Commonwealth, and William for the veterans and the wartime generation, with 99-year-old Ken Hay, who served in the 4th Dorset infantry regiment, at their side.
At the end of the service, the tune of We’ll Meet Again made famous by forces sweetheart the late Dame Vera Lynn will be heard.
Outside the abbey Catherine will join Camilla and other royals in laying flowers at the Innocent Victims’ Memorial in tribute to all victims of war and oppression as the proceedings draw to a close.
Four days of events commemorating the 80th anniversary of VE Day will culminate on Thursday evening with a concert in London’s Horse Guards Parade attended by the king and queen, with performances by The Darkness, Toploader, and classical singer Willard White.
This piece of reporting, also from the Guardian’s archive, gives an insight into how the end of the second world war was celebrated by countries in Europe:
Nations rejoice at victory
8 May 1945
Scenes of rejoicing at the United Nations’ victory over Germany were last night reported from many countries.
Rome: bells rang
The great bells of St Peter’s and those of a hundred other Rome churches rang out in jubilation soon after the news that the European war had ended reached the city. Sirens, which had last were heard as a warning of the approach of Allied ‘planes, also sounded for ten minutes.
Berne: two alerts
In Switzerland, Allied flags were unfurled and crowds jammed the streets of Geneva to celebrate VE Day, but at Berne, where two air raids sounded yesterday, demonstrations were withheld until the official announcement is made.
Brussels: high spirits
At first people were quietly jubilant, but along the sunlit boulevards, where hundred of British and American soldiers mixed joyously with the crowd, spirits rose to a high pitch.
Sweden: King’s hope
King Gustav of Sweden expressed “warmest congratulations to Denmark and Norway now that our Nordic neighbours have one again become free and independent nations.” A second-floor restaurant in Stockholm last night hung six magnums of champagne out of the windows on ropes for passers-by to help themselves.
Dublin: “battle” of flags
About 3pm passers-by in the centre of the city were surprised to see students of Trinity College hoisting the Union Jack and the Red Flag over the main entrance to the university.
Paris bewildered
Shortly before six o’clock the newspapers began to come out announcing Donitz had capitulated. The sirens did not sound, however, and the crowd was puzzled, not knowing whether to believe the news.
The Guardian's front page on VE Day
Victory in Europe: proclamation to-day
8 May 1945
The war in Europe has ended with Germany’s unconditional surrender. Victory will be announced officially by the prime minister in a broadcast at three o’clock this afternoon and the King with broadcast at 9 pm.
To-day will be regarded as VE Day, and both to-day and to-morrow will be public holidays.
Explanation of the delay in making the official announcement lies in the importance attached to a simultaneous announcement in London, Washington and Moscow. The first news of the surrender came from German sources. At 2 pm yesterday the Danish radio announced that the German forces in Norway had capitulated and at 2.30 the German Foreign Minister, Count von Krosigk, announced the “unconditional surrender of all fighting German troops.”
You can see more of how the Guardian the reported wartime victory and the ending of hostilities in Europe on 8 May 1945 at the link below:
Europe and UK to mark 80 years since VE day
Today, Europe will mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war, with events to take place on the continent and farther afield.
Solemn ceremonies will be held at war memorials in towns and villages across France as the country honours its dead and marks the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day, a public holiday this year, as it is every year.
Berlin will for the first time make the day a public holiday, while in the UK the anniversary will be marked with a service at Westminster Abbey in London, to begin with a national two-minute silence.
Commemoration events in the UK – which began with a military procession and Royal Air Force (RAF) flypast on Monday – will conclude with a concert at Horse Guards Parade attended by about 10,000 people. The concert will feature stars of stage and screen including John Newman and dames Joan Collins, Mary Berry and Sheila Hancock, as well as military musicians, and tell the story of victory and the legacy of the second world war in Europe.
The commemorations take place against backdrop of the Ukraine conflict, rises in defence spending and a US foreign policy shift.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for allies to unite to fight Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as Europe celebrates 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in the second world war. Zelensky said in an address:
Just as it did 80 years ago, when it finally became clear to everyone: evil cannot be appeased. It must be fought. Together. Resolutely. With force. With pressure.
We will bring news of the ceremonies taking place across the UK and Europe as the day goes on.
Update: An earlier version of this post reported there was a public holiday in Germany today. In fact, there is only a public holiday in the federal state of Berlin.
Updated
