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Headmaster’s Assembly – VE Day 80

(Below are photos from, and a transcript of, HM’s Assembly to mark VE Day on Thur 8th May, 2025)

Good afternoon, everyone.

Today, we take a moment to reflect on VE Day – Victory in Europe Day – which took place on 8 May 1945. It marked the official end of the Second World War in Europe, following years of unimaginable destruction, suffering, and sacrifice.

VE Day was a moment of relief, release, and reflection. Across Britain and parts of Europe, people flooded the streets, embracing strangers, dancing, cheering. But not everyone celebrated in the same way – for many, it was also a time of quiet mourning, of remembrance for those who never came home.

For me, this day carries particular weight. As you know, I grew up with a British father and a German mother, and spent parts of my childhood in cities like Berlin (Germany) and Prague (Czech Republic)– places deeply marked by the history of the war. That dual heritage has always given me a deeper appreciation for the complexity of remembrance. For some, VE Day is a symbol of triumph. For others, it is a moment of deep sorrow, of reflection on tyranny, loss, and the slow work of rebuilding.

So why do we still mark VE Day, eighty years on? What relevance does it hold for us, here, today, in this school, in 2025?

To understand that, it is worth stepping back into the past.

In 1945, crowds gathered in London. Winston Churchill gave a radio broadcast, and people listened together in their homes and in the streets. Queen Elizabeth, then Princess Elizabeth, famously slipped out with her sister to celebrate anonymously among the crowds – something she described later as one of the most memorable nights of her life.

There were street parties, music, and spontaneous moments of joy. But there was also grief. There were empty chairs at dinner tables. Sons and daughters who would never return. People carried their losses quietly, even in the midst of celebration.

Today, VE Day is marked more solemnly. There are national services of remembrance, moments of silence, and – at schools like ours – opportunities to reflect.

I wonder how that day would have felt for those who lived in this very community – our grandparents or great-grandparents. Some may have fought, others waited at home. Some may have lost loved ones.

But not all nations see 8 May in the same way.

• In Russia, Victory Day is marked on 9 May, and it is a highly significant national event. It is important to say – particularly as we have Ukrainian pupils here today – that commemorations of war are not neutral. They can be used for celebration, but also for politics, for power, for division. That is why remembering responsibly is so important.
• In the United States, VE Day is acknowledged, but Victory over Japan Day in August carries more public attention.
• In Germany, the day is rarely marked with outward celebration. Instead, it is viewed as a moment of liberation – not victory – a painful but necessary end to tyranny. For many, it was the beginning of a long and difficult reckoning.

Let me share with you an image that has always stayed with me.

In my early 20’s I was a tour guide in Berlin…

In Berlin, on the famous Unter den Linden boulevard, there is a memorial in a building called the Neue Wache. Inside is a statue by Käthe Kollwitz, a German artist whose own son died in the First World War. The sculpture is called Mother with Her Dead Son. It is simple, stark, and deeply moving – a mother clutching her lifeless child, surrounded by empty space.

And above that statue, the roof is open. Rain, snow, sunlight – the elements fall directly onto the sculpture. It is a powerful symbol. A reminder that suffering cannot be sealed off. That peace is fragile. That mourning cannot be hidden away.

Every culture remembers differently. Memory is shaped by perspective. And that is something I want to come back to.

So what should VE Day mean to us – not as historians, or as citizens of any one country – but as a school community?

First: it is a prompt to remember that peace is never guaranteed. It is something we have to value and protect – not just in the world at large, but in our day to day lives.

Second: it teaches us about perspective. It is so easy – in school, online, in the news – to fall into groupthink. To assume everyone sees the world the way we do. But the same historical event can be viewed through different lenses – none of which are entirely right or entirely wrong. Being able to understand that, to hold space for nuance, is a mark of real maturity and intelligence.

Third: responsibility. At school, remembrance should not just be about looking back. It should be about looking around – at how we treat one another, how we use our voice, what kind of community we are shaping. It is about character, compassion, and the courage to see things clearly, even when they are complicated.

Let me close with the words of Winston Churchill, spoken on VE Day in 1945:

“We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing; but let us not forget for a moment the toil and efforts that lie ahead.”

Those words are still relevant. Because after the fighting stopped, the real work began – rebuilding trust, communities, and nations.

So I ask you: What might that “toil and effort” look like for us today?

Perhaps:

• Choosing kindness over cruelty
• Listening to someone else’s story before speaking your own
• Thinking critically, even when it is uncomfortable
• Being brave enough to be a peacemaker – in your words, in your friendships, in your choices

VE Day is not just about the past. It is a call to live with greater thought, empathy, and purpose. Let us be the kind of community that remembers – and learns.

Hymn:

Hymn: 97 – God is our strength and refuge

Poem:

Originally written in English in the years following the Second World War, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” was later translated into German, where it became a powerful symbol of remembrance and reflection in a country coming to terms with its past.

Its words are simple, but they ask deep and difficult questions about loss, about learning, and about how often history repeats itself.

Sylvan T will read the original English verses, followed by Conrad W who will read the German version: “Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind.”

“Where have all the flowers gone?”

Tell me, where have all the flowers gone,

long time passing?

Tell me, where have all the flowers gone,

long time ago?

Where have all the flowers gone?

Young girls picked them every one.

When will we ever learn?

When will we ever learn?

“Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind”

Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind,

wo sind sie geblieben?

Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind,

was ist gescheh’n?

Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind –

Mädchen pflückten sie geschwind.

Wann wird man je verstehen,

wann wird man je verstehen?

Musical Interlude

Bella S singing ‘We’ll Meet Again’

Prayer

Prayer of St Francis of Assisi (also known as the Peace Prayer)

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is error, the truth;
where there is doubt, the faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.