What fresh hell is this? National VE day

[wetpants]

This has popped up on my local FB page, villagers are all up for it too. Apparently it’s a nationwide incentive??

The thing is, most front gardens are tiny or non existent here. There’s no way you could be 2m away from your next door. Also these villagers who are up for this are the same people who few weeks ago cried about a lone bloke sitting on a crass verge, well away from any pedestrians. How is this any different?

I’m not British (have lived here a long time though) so maybe I’m just not getting the fervent VE day misty eyeness

And don’t get me started on 9pm nationwide singalong WHO comes up with these things???

The notion of celebrating this at the moment seems completely wrong. For a start 'Victory in Europe' was the Americans and the Russians. Britain on its own would certainly have lost.
Secondly, 'Victory in Europe' marked the division of Europe into the fortunate West and countries in the East of Europe - which basically got given to Russia and endured decades of oppression until the 90s when the USSR broke apart.
Thirdly, it feeds into this wrong headed notion that we are somehow superior to other European nations. We really should get over ourselves and see ourselves as a member of a team, rather than still trying to rub other countries' noses in it.
Most of all, surely we can find better things to celebrate about our country than an inhumane war almost out of living memory?

@GenXer Wasn't Treblinka almost completely destroyed? I think the tracks are still there but most of it's gone, same with Sobibor.

I read about what happened to Anne Frank's school friends, and I know one of them, Hanneli Goslar, survived and even met up with Anne in one of the camps (Bergen-Belsen?), and a few others survived as well, but others were gassed on arrival at one of the death camps. Anne and Margot died of typhus and their mum starved to death. She kept food aside in case she saw her daughters again. I think Mr van Pels/van Daan was the only person in the annex who was gassed - the others died of disease or, in Mrs van Pels' case, got shoved in front of a train.

On a more positive note, Miep Gies - one of the women who helped the people in the annex - lived to 100.

It's like the clapping. We won't be doing this either. Though I'm very pleased the Allies won WW2. I just don't get all patriotic about these things.

@MangoTram people didn't die so that people could post on a forum decades later. They died to stop the spread of Nazism across Europe.

I do have an interest in WW2. I have been to some of the battle grounds in Europe, including the D Day beaches and Arnhem. I have also been to the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Dachau as well as the places like Prague with the museums and the memorials to what happened there. What you read about there, when you see what happened - to the soldiers, to the civillians - and how people can be so inhumane to others - and how people can be so brave and compassionate, even in such desparation, sticks with you.

I think it's wrong to have a celebration. I absolutely think it's right to remember, to commemorate and to have services to remember, and to pledge that it doesn't happen again.

But street parties and sing alongs.

That doesn't sit right with me. I think there is a massive difference between remembering and then having street parties.

@Alsohuman that was why my grandma lied about her age to join the WAAF. She did it cos everyone else was doing it and it was the right thing for her to do.

I miss her.

The trouble is... there will be people out there who hang on his every word on these aspects, and don't look at how the Govt are handling, and have handled the pandemic

Completely agree but they’ll do that anyway regardless of a few people having a street party. Tory apologists don’t need an excuse.

I've been to Sachsenhausen, which was by no means the worst, and that was horrible enough. What initially got me were that the gates to it were at the end of a pleasant residential street, so the people who lived there must have had some idea of what was going on.

@chomalungma I agree with this

I think it's wrong to have a celebration. I absolutely think it's right to remember, to commemorate and to have services to remember, and to pledge that it doesn't happen again. I think there is a massive difference between remembering and then having street parties.

I could see the point of having a street party when Covid-19 is finally brought to heel - I can't say defeated, I suspect it will linger on in a milder form. That would be worth having a knees up for.

I think it's wrong to have a celebration. I absolutely think it's right to remember, to commemorate and to have services to remember, and to pledge that it doesn't happen again.

But street parties and sing alongs.

That doesn't sit right with me. I think there is a massive difference between remembering and then having street parties.

Absolutely

My dad's uncle was a bombardier in one of the planes that went to Dresden. He killed himself on VE day as the guilt destroyed him. His family never spoke about his suicide. We only knew about how he died when my Aunt found the letter her father had written to her mother before he hung himself after her mother's death. We won't be celebrating we will be quietly remembering a mentally tortured 25 year old man who left a wife and 2 year old daughter behind.

trappedsincesundaymorn so many lives were ruined, not just the dead but the people left behind mourning them and the ones like your uncle who couldn't get over what they had seen. I think of the young men being tortured and killed in Japanese POW camps and what they were going through as people celebrated the "end" of the war.

Makes me want to scream not sing.

Certainly not saying it's not worth celebrating. Of course it is. Although VJ Day celebrations would be better.
But the whole thing has been shabbily co-opted for grubby Brexit purposes - at least that was the original plan.

@Alsohuman It’s celebration of the anniversary of the end of war. The country went mad with ecstasy on VE Day, surely joy on its anniversary is eminently fitting? It wasn't the end of the war, women and children were dying in Japanese POW camps, captured servicemen were also dying, some the subject of horrific medical experiments. The war wasn't over.

Yes, I do know that. Please forgive me for omitting the words “in Europe”.

Well why celebrate then, why not wait until the end of the war when it would be a celebration for everyone. It was insensitive then and it is still insensitive now.

I agree with bellini

VE day was used for brexit purposes

Its a shame we can’t just leave VE day (I appreciate its a bit late now) and have a celebration for VJ day...when hopefully lockdown will have relaxed a bit

Celebrate the end of the war, not part of the war

I don’t know @1forsorrow, not being the one who made the decision. Ask whoever decided the anniversary of VE Day should be marked.

Oh apologies I obviously agree with 1forsorrow

I don't have a problem with the anniversary of VE day being commemorated - I do agree with Bellini that the celebrations which had been planned were being used for Brexit purposes.

I agree about VJ Day which is August I believe. I just don't think we are in the right time at the moment for this.

I won't be joining in..

It's because I loathe the mawkish sentimentality..

I want to celebrate 75 years of peace and want to prevent another rise of the far right that we're heading towards...

@Alsohuman but you are happy to support the propaganda by saying it was to celebrate the end of the war.

I want to celebrate 75 years of peace and want to prevent another rise of the far right that we're heading toward

This.

And no doubt many supporters of the Far Right and people who promote hate will be tweeting about VE day and what they are doing - without seeing the irony.

Looking at you, Katie Hopkins, Tommy Robinson etc