It’s 8th May 1845 and a large ship arrives in Edinburgh. It’s a Liberty Ship, one of the many vessels that sailed across the U-boat infested Atlantic Ocean from America to the UK bringing food and supplies to hungry Brits. When the crew disembarked, they were surprised to find scenes of apparent celebration on the streets. Having been on radio silence for some days, no one on board no one knew what was going on. 15 year old Anthony Johansen looked all around in bewilderment. Then, it became clear. War was over, It was Victory in Europe Day.
I never spoke to him about it, largely because we were separated by geography for most of my life – he in Canada, me in England – and because I never thought to ask. It was much later in life that I discovered the astonishing reality. A young boy of 14 or 15, lying about his age in order to serve his country in the only way he knew how, risking his life day in, day out. 200 of the 3000 Liberty ships were lost in World War Two and while it is not known how many lives were lost, we know that 9000 merchant seamen perished. That was some generation and my dad was part of it.
In Rotterdam, my mother, 21 year old Neeltje Verburg, along with her parents, Marinus and Anna, and her brother Jacobus were finally free of the Nazi occupation, which began almost exactly five years before following the near destruction of the city. They lost their home to the bombers and all their possessions. For most of that time, they lived on scraps. Marinus set traps on the verandah to catch small birds which for years became an integral part of their diet. These birds were mostly consumed raw.
Early in the war, they watched helplessly from their apartment as the Nazis marched in to Rotterdam, viewing terrible scenes of death as the overrun Dutch marines put up a brave fight. They then sat helplessly by as the city’s Jewish population was moved out from the city to a holding camp in Westerbork. Few realised they would never return. Instead, the road from Westerbork led to death camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau.
My mum, who rarely spoke about the war, told me that her dad, Marinus, who was a carpenter, was repeatedly stopped and interrogated by the Nazi invader. The name Verburg, they told him, was Jewish. The implication being he too should have been with the other Jews in Westerbork. Repeatedly, he explained he was not Jewish, as his documents proved conclusively. What, I have often wondered, if things had taken a different turn and he had been taken away with his many Jewish friends? Certainly I would not be writing about it today.
For my generation, it is almost impossible to take in what it must have been like in the long war years from 1939 to 1945. It must have been sheer endless drudgery, punctuated by moments of sheer terror, but with the underlying fear that the Nazis might win. No wonder Edinburgh was wild with celebration when young Anthony arrived there on 8th May 1945. At last, there was a future worth thinking about, worth dreaming about.
Today’s celebrations will be muted because it’s just another working day. Sure, there will be a religious service at Westminster Abbey with a two-minute period of silence at 12.00 noon and the pubs will be allowed to stay open for an extra hour tonight so we can raise a glass in respect to those who made the ultimate sacrifice so we might be free, but am I alone in believing, very strongly, that today should have been a national bank holiday?
I am not sure what the right word is for today. Commemoration? Celebration? Thanksgiving? All of those and none. Today’s events are mainly for us to watch on TV, by way of recorded highlights on the news. I feel that we are just watching it all take place and not participating in it.
I hope we have learned something in the intervening 80 years. While we have so far avoided further world wars, there have been numerous conflicts around the globe, some of which have taken us to the brink, or somewhere close to it. We should have learned by now, although I fear that not all of us have, that we must always stand-up to tyrants and not attempt to appease them. In more recent times, we have seen the rise of the far right in America under Donald Trump, the pure fascism of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, as well as mainstream far right parties gaining power in countries like Germany, Italy and, more concerningly, in the UK, with Trump ally and Putin apologist Nigel Farage gaining more influence and power. Taking a punt with the far right, as Germany did in the 1930s, can have catastrophic consequences. VE Day 2025 should provide an urgent reminder of that.
My dad served his country as a young teenager. My mum lived through the horrors of the blitz in Rotterdam and five years of Nazi accommodation. I shall remember and salute them today and vow that I will do whatever I can to maintain the peaceful world they bequeathed to us. Theirs was a great generation and we should honour them, always.