Victory in Europe: VE Day
1945 · event
After six years of war in Europe, it was over. Strangers kissed in the streets, church bells rang across the continent, and millions of families finally dared to hope their sons might come home. Millions of others learned to live with the empty chair at the table.
In London, two young princesses slipped out of Buckingham Palace and danced unrecognised in the crowd, one of them was the future Queen Elizabeth II, who later called it one of the most memorable nights of her life.
But on the same evening, millions sat by empty chairs. The lights came on across Europe for the first time in six years, on cities of rubble, and on families doing the arithmetic of who was coming home.