To not want to 'celebrate' VE

I agree Op

My grandad used to get fed up with people portraying WW2 as jolly sing songs and cups of tea in air raid shelters. And the myth that everyone was nice and pulled together. He was in a reserved occupation so didn't have to go away but joined the special constabulary. He witnessed all manner of crime and selfishness as well as the trauma of those who'd been bombed out. Black market, profiteering, trying to get one over on the system, looting etc were rife. He said the war was terrifying and hard for most people and everyone was just glad it was over by 1945. I don't know what he'd have made of the current culture of celebratory style events surrounding the world wars. I never knew him go to the war memorial. Most of his generation that I knew just said a silent prayer/thought for those who never came home and then got on with their day.

I went looking for it and it is certainly a moving piece by Sheila Hancock:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/03/ve-day-second-world-war-sheila-hancock

The end of a war where the good side won is always something to celebrate I think?

Arguments about the meaning of 'good' and 'winning' another time by all means 😉

We've got Pearl Harbour to 'thank' for that. I can never watch that film without crying my eyes out.

It could have lasted if the USA hadn’t come in

I think those dignified soldiers would be truly horrified by the me and ‘my truth’ brigade. Let’s hope we never see a rerun, if these posts are anything to go by…they would be first to throw the country under the nearest bus driven by a dictator.

What am I supposed to be abjectly ignorant about? Enlighten me - I know what World War 2 was.

This is why I mentioned Sheila Hancock's piece in the weekend papers. Her article was literally about how different it all felt back then and people today don't really understand how it wasn't a celebration at all, it was sheer relief. She thinks we have moved a long way from what and how we should be 'celebrating'.

My DPs were children in the war and remember VE Day. It wouldn't have had to go on much long for my Dad and his friends to be called up.

The 'other wars... that are still going on' don't impact Britain in the same way. Are we not allowed to mark peace in our own country?

If only it were possible to show our time now but as it would be under Nazi rule I suspect those who feel it was somehow mean of us to beat them would change their minds sharpish. Some of you people are unbelievable.

I'm not old enough to have been in that war - few are now, but I grew up in streets with rubble where houses used to be and I know what my parents lived through.

I wrote the above 2-3 times in my head and trust me that was the mildest version by far.

It might be time for you, but while I'm still alive, I will attach meaning, including respect. The veterans' legacy lives on.

This too. I think a lot of these posts (not all) really don't understand this relief at all, possibly because they're projecting how we feel these days about wars we're in, which is mostly quite safe ourselves as civilians.

Take account of that feeling of relief when deciding whether to approve or disapprove of the mere idea of celebrating VE day. I'm not saying it should be celebrated the same way for ever, but at least try to understand fully what is being celebrated.

And what about all the families in all the other wars? That are still going on?

It's time to move on from the past. It's different now the veterans are gone.

This! I always think of VE day as being about a massive sense of relief that a horrible experience was ending, not victory as such.

I am utterly exasperated by your abject ignorance, and it’s a free country thanks to the war heroes I can swear as much as I bloody well please!

I agree, but I also feel when antisemitism and fascism is on the rise again across Europe then Lest We Forget feels a bit less meaningful in the current climate.

If we aren’t using it as a platform to learn, when does it become just jingoistic?

@Feelingmuchbetter: What a delight - I can understand that peace isn't something you'd appreciate since you apparently like to go around swearing at strangers. But personally, I think the peace is more important to celebrate than the victory.

Half of Europe was under Soviet occupation after VE Day, but since Britain wasn't, I guess you're fine with that.

Oh come on, calling it a ‘fuss’ is awful. The suffering that the Nazi’s brought on this world is unimaginable. They were an incredible force to be reckoned with and our people along with many other nations took on that force with a bravery that wouldn’t be seen today. I for one am really bloody proud of what our country and its allies accomplished during the war and I can’t begin to imagine how much more suffering would have gone on if no one had bothered to take on the Nazi’s. When VE was announced in 1945, the world celebrated and rightly so. They knew the killing would come to an end. They knew that the boys still alive would be coming home. Of course we have to remember the fallen and the awfulness of those wars but that’s what Remembrance Day is for. VE Day is a day for celebrating the end of it all.
You don’t have to celebrate or put the bunting out but just be glad you have the freedom to make whichever choice you like and don’t judge the people who make different choices.

I don't think that speaking German would really be such a major issue! Anyway, in most of the occupied territories people continued to speak their own language.

It wouldn't have lasted anyway. The Nazis had patently bitten off more than they could chew and it was spiralling for them long before the end of the war.

The reason for ‘celebrating’ VE Day is that there is a strong memory (real for a few, second-hand or cultural for most) of the relief and euphoria British people felt on that day. It’s not ‘hurrah for war’ or ‘we won’ but a release from 6 years of hunger, fear, hardship, separation and death. Can you imagine what that felt like?

In reality, although it was a victory, the war was a catastrophe. Britain came out of it appallingly damaged and impoverished. But we are celebrating the fact that as a nation, we survived.

i know that.

WW2 didn’t end until everyone involved had stopped fighting it.

Oh, give over. I'm well aware of how many millions died. I studied that period of history for my degree. My grandfather was at the Somme. You know, one of the battles in 'the war to end all wars'.

I see NOTHING to 'celebrate'. Commemorate, yes. Celebrate, no. So get lost with your 'truly disgusting post'. You don't pay a great debt for the ultimate sacrifice by having a party and putting up bunting. You read the names on the war memorials every time you pass one and quietly reflect that it was sheer chance it was their generation and not your own that saw such appalling carnage. Given where we're at though, there's still time for all of us to witness it for ourselves.

Read Sheila Hancock's piece.