V E Day

[kernelbogey]

I was around for the original V E Day - having been born just as Dresden burned from the allied bombing - and have fairly unmixed feelings about this celebration tomorrow, 8 May. I believe it has been foisted upon us as some sort of celebration of B****t, and am relieved that Covid-19 has forced a scaling down of whatever plans were afoot. I wish it weren't happening.

My lifetime has been blessed with (mostly) peace in Europe - not forgetting the Balkan tragedy - and I attribute much of that to the existence of the European Union: with all its faults, it has been partially instrumental in keeping that peace.

I detest nationalism in all countries, and don't like it when the one I live in wheels out dusty jingoistic tropes like this one.

[LMcD]

I was around for the original V E Day - having been born just as Dresden burned from the allied bombing - and have fairly unmixed feelings about this celebration tomorrow, 8 May. I believe it has been foisted upon us as some sort of celebration of B****t, and am relieved that Covid-19 has forced a scaling down of whatever plans were afoot. I wish it weren't happening.

My lifetime has been blessed with (mostly) peace in Europe - not forgetting the Balkan tragedy - and I attribute much of that to the existence of the European Union: with all its faults, it has been partially instrumental in keeping that peace.

I detest nationalism in all countries, and don't like it when the one I live in wheels out dusty jingoistic tropes like this one.

I have no objection to people celebrating the 75th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe, but unfortunately the occasion has inevitably been hijacked by Boris and his mates. It will serve as a useful precursor to Churchill Mark II's address to the nation on Sunday. It will also help us to stop fretting about deaths in nursing homes and to forget our inability to source PPE and, when we do manage to find some, check it before we pay for it.

[gurnemanz]

I have no objection to people celebrating the 75th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe, but unfortunately the occasion has inevitably been hijacked by Boris and his mates. It will serve as a useful precursor to Churchill Mark II's address to the nation on Sunday. It will also help us to stop fretting about deaths in nursing homes and to forget our inability to source PPE and, when we do manage to find some, check it before we pay for it.

Re VE Day. My father told me he had spent the war in almost complete safety in back rooms and remote UK locations working on radar and was now looking forward to having some home life with his wife and daughters - my twin older sisters. However, after celebrating the peace in Europe he was told to go to Liverpool and get on a boat to India to take on the still fighting Japanese. Soon after he arrived the Americans dropped the big one and it was all over, so he got through the war without firing a shot in anger. He didn't actually get back to UK till June 1946. Eventually, I came along.

[Petrushka]

I have no objection to people celebrating the 75th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe.

I, too, have no objection, as such, but the constant wheeling out of the Second World War as 'our' victory with the attendant nauseating jingoism and political agendas, is something that needs to be consigned to history.

I was born on the 10th anniversary of D-Day, my father was in Bomber Command, my mother a child sheltering from the Luftwaffe and 'the War' has loomed large in my life. I have a big interest in the subject and have read countless books on every aspect of the conflict. I've also visited many sites associated with those years from the Normandy beaches to Auschwitz, from Dachau to Hitler's Eagles Nest in Berchtesgaden.

But it is time now, not to forget, we must never do that, but consign the vain nostalgia to history and as a country look forward, not constantly backwards to past faded glories, and accept that our place in the world is not what it was nor will be again. The 75th anniversary should give us the opportunity to do that.

[Serial_Apologist]

I was around for the original V E Day - having been born just as Dresden burned from the allied bombing - and have fairly unmixed feelings about this celebration tomorrow, 8 May. I believe it has been foisted upon us as some sort of celebration of B****t, and am relieved that Covid-19 has forced a scaling down of whatever plans were afoot. I wish it weren't happening.

My lifetime has been blessed with (mostly) peace in Europe - not forgetting the Balkan tragedy - and I attribute much of that to the existence of the European Union: with all its faults, it has been partially instrumental in keeping that peace.

I detest nationalism in all countries, and don't like it when the one I live in wheels out dusty jingoistic tropes like this one.

Whie agreeing very much with your last paragraph, I would rate the EU low in my estimation of what has largely kept the peace in Europe since WWII. But as a caveat I would suggest that it was the new Keynsian economics already applied in America under the New Deal that did away, pro tem, with the free market orthodoxies that had ruled global economics up to that point. Keynsianism had two consequences beyond the ones commonly cited: 1) it served to mitigate the worst effects of the eternal boom/recession cycle in terms of mass unemployment by maintaining employment for infrastructural needs, and skilling in readiness for "recovery", while draining the worst inflationary excesses of boom times, or "overheating"; and 2) It undermined one central idea on the political left that declines in the overall rate of profitability were inscribed in the mechanics of capitalism and signalled its demise, given the right sort of push. These two factors in combination led to the discrediting of the old class politics of left and right, in their most extreme expressed in Communism and fascism, and, for a period of some 30 years, a convergence towards a putative "centre" in thinking and strategies. The marginalisation of the politics of left and right, and their associations with internationalism (of a very different sort from what today is called "globalisation") and nationalism, removed the two main preconditions for war within and between nations; and it is no coincidence that we today see the rise once more of the far right, in particular, which for decades had been considered beyond the pale in the minds of most reasonable people raised under the more progresssive politics of 1945-75, with the far left, now manifesting as various forms of Corbynism, running some way behind in the political legitimacy stakes.

[richardfinegold]

I am a History buff and have read extensively on WW II. I am therefore very frustrated at the lack of historical awareness of the general public. Half Americans under the age of 40 are unaware that the Holocaust occurred. To the extent that celebrations stimulate any in interest in History, then I could not disagree more with the sentiments of the O.P. Perhaps we cannot escape repeating the mistakes of the past, even if we maintain Historical Awareness; we surely have no chance avoiding their repetition if we embrace collective ignorance.
A celebration such as this might be useful if it explores related issues, such as: What were the lessons of selling out the Czechs at Munich and pursuing appeasement with a bloodthirsty tyrant? Was the RAF campaign of deliberately targeting German Civilians a justifiable policy in view of the Nazis own behavior? Was Roosevelt justified in imprisoning thousands of American Citizens of Japanese descent? Was Truman justified in using the A bomb to limit American and British casualties? Should the Anglo Americans have fought more forcefully for the postwar fate of Eastern Europe? And on it goes.
A celebration can be an opportunity for reflection, not just mindless jingoism

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I’ve declined all invitations to local socially distanced street events, ever since the Daily Mail termed VE as Victory Over Europe.

[Nick Armstrong]

the Daily Mail termed VE as Victory Over Europe.

Yes: nauseating

[Bryn]

I seem to recall that the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics played some minor role in defeating Hitlerism in Europe:

[ahinton]

I would have prefered it to be called RE Day - i.e. Relief in Europe Day; after all, no one actually "won" - each side lost...

[kernelbogey]

I seem to recall that the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics played some minor role in defeating Hitlerism in Europe:

The numbers of Soviet dead are simply staggering.

Britain seems to have created a modern myth that we 'won the war' on our own - the period of 'standing alone' somehow extended mythically to the whole of the six years.

Another example of the ignorance cited by Richard.

[gurnemanz]

I seem to recall that the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics played some minor role in defeating Hitlerism in Europe:

Russia celebrates tomorrow. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_Day_(9_May)

[teamsaint]

The numbers of Soviet dead are simply staggering.

Britain seems to have created a modern myth that we 'won the war' on our own - the period of 'standing alone' somehow extended mythically to the whole of the six years.

Another example of the ignorance cited by Richard.

The Soviet -German non- aggression pact and the date of the US entry into the war probably helped in the creation of that narrative.

[DracoM]

I have fairly unmixed feelings about this celebration tomorrow, 8 May. I believe it has been foisted upon us as some sort of celebration of B****t, and am relieved that Covid-19 has forced a scaling down of whatever plans were afoot. I wish it weren't happening.

My lifetime has been blessed with (mostly) peace in Europe - not forgetting the Balkan tragedy - and I attribute much of that to the existence of the European Union: with all its faults, it has been partially instrumental in keeping that peace.

I detest nationalism in all countries, and don't like it when the one I live in wheels out dusty jingoistic tropes like this one.

Absolutely agree.

[LezLee]

Absolutely agree.

Agreed