V-E Day: Background information when reading The Librarianist

V-E Day

This article relates to The Librarianist

Patrick deWitt's The Librarianist depicts main character Bob Comet's childhood experience of being driven home by a sheriff, after having run away, on the day that officially marked the end of World War II.

May 8, 1945 is the day when German troops throughout Europe surrendered to the Allies, and is known as V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day). Millions of people rejoiced at the news that the war—which had lasted six years and cost millions of lives, including those of the six million Jews who had been murdered in the Holocaust—was over.

In towns and cities throughout Europe and other parts of the world, including London, Paris and Copenhagen, there were emotional public celebrations, parades, dancing and singing, bonfires, and confetti. In the United States, New York City was unsurprisingly the site of the largest V-E Day celebration—crowds gathered in Times Square and marched down Fifth Avenue. There were also major celebrations in San Francisco, Baltimore and Hawaii.

Hitler had committed suicide on April 30, and his successor had been in the process of negotiating an end to the war with the Allies during the following days, so the official news of Germany's surrender was not surprising. New York officials, for example, knew what was coming; the New York Times announced that more than 15,000 police officers would be working "to ensure that celebrants are held within the bonds of sane and reasonable hilarity."

However, because the war with Japan in Asia and the Pacific was still underway, President Truman urged Americans to temper their elation. "Our victory is only half over," he told the country; he asked Americans "to refrain from celebrating in order to focus on the task ahead in the Pacific." Military officials wanted to keep troops and home front workers motivated, and avoid complacency and burnout.

V-J Day—Victory over Japan Day—came on August 14, 1945, just a few months later.

V-E Day celebrations in London, England on May 8, 1945, UK Ministry of Information, via Picryl

Filed under People, Eras & Events

This "beyond the book article" relates to The Librarianist. It originally ran in July 2023 and has been updated for the June 2024 paperback edition. Go to magazine.