Individual Entry Archive: Consider This

Reliving V-E Day in the City of Lights

Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day.
—Shakespeare: Henry V

Regarding V-E (Victory in Europe) Day 60 years ago today. The Germans have surrendered. We are still in Paris. The six of us who have been together since England are standing on the parapet of Sacred Heart Cathedral atop Montmartre, overlooking the city. It is getting darker by the minute. Night is falling.

At almost the moment of total darkness — Paris has been blacked out for four years — we are overwhelmed. There is an explosion of light and music everywhere in the city.

In a single moment every streetlight, every electric sign, every square decorated with festive lanterns springs to life as bands in each of these places begin to play. The sound of the singing of "La Marseillaise" comes from everywhere. The war is over in Europe! The nightmare is ended.

For Europe, Parisians, the darkness is now behind them. I can now look forward to going home, to once again hug and kiss my mother, my sister, and to be with my beloved Anita and be married, a union that is now in its 60th year.
—Seymour Robinson

Source: Mr.Seymour Robinson's Letter to the Editor of the Los Angeles Times May 8, 2005
See also: US State Department's Eyewitness to History: Recollections of VE Day 1945