Category Archives: Second world war

King calls for renewed ‘commitment to peace’ in VE Day message

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Charles says sacrifice of second world war heroes must not be in vain

King Charles called for a renewal of “global commitments to restoring a just peace where there is war, to diplomacy and to the prevention of conflict”, as the UK marked the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day.

Westminster Abbey was the focal point for national commemorations with a service of thanksgiving weaving poignant reminders of wartime deprivation and loss with the hopes for the future that historic day had promised.

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Many in US and western Europe think ‘third world war likely within five to 10 years’

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Exclusive: Poll before 80th anniversary of VE Day finds tensions with Russia seen as most probable cause

Eighty years after the second world war, polling shows many Americans and western Europeans believe an even more devastating third global conflict could break out within a decade, with tensions with Russia seen as the most probable cause.

As Europe prepares to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, the YouGov polling also showed large majorities felt that events during and before the second world war were relevant today and must continue to be taught to younger generations.

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UK marks VE Day 80th anniversary with large crowds and military pomp

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Royal family and war veterans watch 1,300-strong military procession in London while street parties held around UK

As Big Ben chimed at noon and with the Cenotaph, the symbol of sacrifice, draped in the union flag for the first time since its unveiling in 1920, the UK marked the 80th anniversary of VE Day with military pomp before large crowds who had gathered in central London.

Buckingham Palace may have served as the centrepiece of Monday’s spectacle before Thursday’s anniversary of Victory in Europe Day. At the event’s heart, however, were the VVIP second world war veterans, those remaining few who bore actual witness then and who today serve to remind.

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Starmer praises ‘selfless dedication’ of armed forces before VE Day anniversary

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PM writes of ‘debt that can never be fully repaid’ in letter marking 80 years since end of second world war in Europe

Keir Starmer has praised the “selfless dedication” of those who have served in the military before the anniversary of VE Day as the government unveiled a new £50m support system for veterans.

In an open letter to mark 80 years since the end of the second world war in Europe, the prime minister said the sacrifice made by members of the armed forces was a debt that could “never fully be repaid”.

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‘This is your victory’: Churchill’s VE Day radio address to be broadcast by Timothy Spall

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Actor joins four days of national events including concerts, church services and a military procession in London

Eighty years after Winston Churchill addressed the nation from Downing Street with the words “This is your victory!” a recitation of his famous VE Day speech will be broadcast as the nation commemorates the day the Allies formally accepted Germany’s surrender in 1945.

Events across four days of national UK commemorations include a military procession through central London on Monday, with tens of thousands expected to line the route from Parliament Square to Buckingham Palace, and a service at Westminster Abbey on the 8 May anniversary on Thursday.

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Bergen-Belsen survivors mark 80th anniversary of camp’s liberation

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About 180 British Jews and deputy PM Angela Rayner among those in attendance at event in northern Germany

Survivors of the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen and their families have gathered at the site in northern Germany to officially commemorate the 80th anniversary of its liberation by British troops.

Representatives of victims’ associations and the military took part in the ceremony along with the British deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner.

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‘A common humanity’: the British families who tended graves of German soldiers

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Across the country men and women have cared for the resting places of their enemy’s fallen, finding peace and hope

For some, tending the graves was an act of reconciliation. For others, it was about acknowledging shared losses and shared grief.

Thousands of Germans who died in Britain during the first and second world wars were laid to rest in local graveyards. British people tended these graves for decades, even laying flowers and wreaths for their former foes.

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John ‘Paddy’ Hemingway, the last Battle of Britain pilot, dies aged 105

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The pilot, whose squadron shot down 90 enemy aircraft in an 11-day period in 1940, called himself the ‘lucky Irishman’

The last surviving Battle of Britain pilot, John “Paddy” Hemingway, has died aged 105.

The Royal Air Force (RAF) said Hemingway, a member of “the Few” who took to the skies during the second world war, died peacefully on Monday.

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Journalist quits role after comparing French actions in Algeria to Nazi massacre

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Jean-Michel Aphatie stands by comments he made on broadcaster RTL

A prominent French journalist has said he is stepping down from his role as an expert analyst for broadcaster RTL after provoking an uproar by comparing French actions during colonial rule in Algeria to a second world war massacre committed by Nazi forces in France.

Jean-Michel Aphatie, a veteran reporter and broadcaster, insisted that while he would not be returning to RTL, he wholly stood by his comments made on the radio station in February equating atrocities committed by France in Algeria with those of Nazi Germany in occupied France.

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VE Day 2025: Tower of London poppies to return to mark 80th anniversary

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Four days of events planned in Britain to commemorate eight decades since end of second world war in Europe

For the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day the Cenotaph will be draped in union flags and there will be a military procession and flypast as well as a new installation of about 30,000 ceramic poppies at the Tower of London, it has been announced.

Four days of commemorations will begin on the bank holiday Monday of 5 May in tribute to the millions of people across the UK and Commonwealth who served in the second world war.

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Rose Girone, believed to be oldest living Holocaust survivor, dies aged 113

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Born in 1912 in Poland, Girone was one of about 245,000 survivors living across more than 90 countries

Rose Girone, believed to be the oldest living Holocaust survivor and a strong advocate for sharing survivors’ stories, has died. She was 113.

She died on Monday in New York, according to the Claims Conference, a New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

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Rediscovered, a young English novelist’s warning of the Nazi threat

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Crooked Cross, Sally Carson’s ‘electrifying masterpiece’ from 1934, to be republished

Sally Carson was not an oracle or a prophet, just a young woman from Dorset, born in 1901. Yet she foresaw a dark and violent future for Europe and gave voice to those fears in a 1934 novel that is now being hailed as “an electrifying masterpiece”.

Carson’s book, Crooked Cross, predicted the scale of the Nazi threat and is to be republished for the first time this spring, ahead of the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war. Controversial in its day, her novel had to walk a careful path to avoid the accusation that it was alarmist about the Fuhrer’s aims. A stage adaptation of her story was even censored, shorn of all its “Heil Hitlers”.

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Third of young adults in UK ‘unable to name Auschwitz or any Nazi death camps’

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Lack of knowledge about Holocaust identified as well as level of denial and disinformation seen on social media

A third of young adults in the UK are unable to name Auschwitz or any of the other concentration camps and ghettoes where the crimes of the Holocaust were committed, according to a study.

Other growing gaps in knowledge – especially among those aged 18-29 – were also identified, as part of a major international survey in countries including the US and UK.

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Anne Frank exhibit opening in New York amid US debate over antisemitism

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First full-scale replica of Frank’s attic annexe goes on show next week on International Holocaust Remembrance Day

The first-ever full-scale replica of Anne Frank’s attic annex goes on show in New York next week, part of an ongoing effort to maintain awareness of – and combat – antisemitism in the midst of conflict in the Middle East and political tensions in the US.

Eighty years on from Frank’s death, aged 15, in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, the exhibition at the Center for Jewish History in downtown Manhattan aims to introduce new audiences to one of the most famous victims of Adolf Hitler’s “final solution”.

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‘Discovered’ diaries of British socialite Unity Mitford reveal Hitler relationship

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Diaries, believed to be genuine, chronicle 139 pre-war meetings between antisemitic aristocrat and Nazi leader

The diaries of an antisemitic British socialite who was obsessed with Adolf Hitler and struck up a personal relationship with the Nazi leader have been discovered, according to the Daily Mail.

The leather-bound journals, which had been lost to historians and unseen for eight decades, appear to reveal the extent of Unity Mitford’s relationship with the dictator.

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Netherlands to open archive on people accused of wartime Nazi collaboration

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Some descendants are apprehensive but a historian says making 30m pages of records public is ‘important step’

For 80 years, details of their ancestors’ collaboration with the Nazis have been buried in spotless rows of filing cabinets in The Hague. But thousands of Dutch families face having their relatives’ history laid bare later this week when an archive opens on 425,000 people accused of siding with the occupier during the second world war.

On Thursday, the central archives of the special jurisdiction courts (CABR), established after the allies liberated the Netherlands to bring collaborators to justice, will open under national archive rules.

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Court rules former Nazi camp guard, 100, can face trial in Germany

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Gregor Formanek is charged with aiding and abetting 3,322 murders at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp

German authorities are pressing for a 100-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard to face trial almost 80 years after the end of the second world war.

The higher regional court in Frankfurt said on Tuesday it had overturned a decision by a lower court under which the suspect had been deemed unfit to stand trial.

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The 1920s desecration of a Gutenberg Bible shocked the US – but miraculously gave a Jewish family new life in Australia

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Michael Visontay discovered that a ‘crime against history’ in the book world set off a chain of events that led to his family’s delicatessen in 1950s Sydney

It was a brazen act of extreme literary vandalism that desecrated one of the world’s most valuable books. But it also allowed a family of Holocaust survivors to forge a new life in Australia.

The extraordinary tale was uncovered by the author and journalist Michael Visontay while researching his family history during Covid lockdown and has now been published as a book, Noble Fragments.

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Germany draws up list of bunkers amid Russia tensions

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App planned for public to find emergency shelter in places including underground train stations and car parks

Germany is drawing up a list of bunkers that could provide emergency shelter for civilians, the interior ministry has said, at a time of rising tensions with Russia.

The list would include underground train stations and car parks as well as state buildings and private properties, a ministry spokesperson said.

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