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Activities for Community Groups: End of the War

These activities are designed to be introduced by youth workers and other leaders of children's and young people's groups. They can be used as part of learning activities, drama presentations and community work.

These activities draw on story extracts from the Archive. Story extract titles appear in bold in the activities below, eg A Child Remembers the Outbreak of War. These extracts can be found in the Story Extracts file.

Thoughts on VE Day

Activity 1

Split the young people into groups of four. Give each group a pile of large sugar-paper triangles. Ask each group to write as many words as they can think of - one per triangle - to describe happiness, fun and excitement. This can then be used to put up around a room, as bunting for VE Day celebrations.

Split the groups into pairs. Hand out copies of the following extracts, and the task sheet.

• Victory Celebrations and Epilogue
• VE Day Celebrations and Reunions
• VE Day - Trowbridge Celebrates

These extracts can be found in the Story Extracts file.

Feedback and discuss the results. Get the young people to add the words they have recorded to the strings of bunting.

Reaction to the end of war

Activity 2

Split the young people into groups. Give each group a picture of VE Day celebrations from the Story Extracts page. Tell them to imagine they are a person in that picture. Give each group a copy of the task sheet below, along with copies of the full stories of each of the extracts they have already seen, so that the groups can get a fuller picture of VE Day if they wish.

The leader should start the questioning of the group about their reactions to the end of war, and then ask people from other groups to ask questions. Conclude with a discussion about how the population of Britain behaved on VE Day.

Coming home

Activity 3

Split into groups of three. Ask each group to write a list of the reasons why soldiers could not just come straight home once the war was over. Feedback. Reasons might include the necessity of helping to rebuild Europe, of guarding prisoners of war, of ensuring that food was distributed, of ensuring that democracy was restored, of ensuring that local people did not take revenge on alleged collaborators.

Split into groups of four. Ask each group to use the extracts listed in Activity 1 to prepare a short role-play. Ask people to imagine they are soldiers being interviewed by a 大象传媒 news correspondent on VE Day. They need to portray how the soldiers felt about the end of the war, and what they felt their role was in helping prepare for peace. Remind them to consider the impact that fighting during the war would have had on these men.

Ask the young people to imagine they are a father, serving in the army in Europe on VE Day. They should write a postcard to their family, explaining why they are not coming home immediately, and why they have to stay abroad.

VJ Day and VE Day

Activity 4

Read the extract VJ Day Remembered. You can find this in in the Story Extracts file. In pairs, ask the young people to write a list of things that were different on VJ Day, as compared to VE Day.

Get those with the longest and shortest lists to read them to the whole group. Discuss their findings in the whole group.

Split the group into four. Discuss what the phrase 'forgotten army' means. Read the VJ Day factfile, which appears under 1945 in the Timeline. Ask each group to imagine that they are writing a speech for Clement Attlee, prime minister at the time of VJ Day, to explain why VJ Day is more important than VE Day, and why the men fighting in the east should not be the 'forgotten army'.

Remembering VJ Day and VE Day

Activity 5

Split into groups of five. Hand out family cards to each group - there should be a mother, a child, a father who fought in Europe, a brother who fought in the war with Japan, and a grandfather who fought in World War One. Within the groups the young people should discuss the characters they are going to create, based on the cards they have chosen. Each member of the group should compose a short statement from their character - to be made to the whole group - about what they expect for the future, and why it is important to remember VJ Day and VE Day.

Feedback to the rest of the class.

Split into several same-sized groups. Tell them that each group is a planning committee, responsible for organising a celebration to commemorate the end of the war. Ask them to decide upon an activity that would be suitable for them to take part in, and plan how they would organise it. They need to prepare a brief presentation to give to the main group, saying why their idea would be best. Everyone then votes for the activity they would most like to organise.

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