Cessation of war in Europe 80 years ago brought Winnipeggers together in record numbers

Winnipeg Free Press

02-05-2025

When the news reached Canada in May 1945 that the German army had surrendered, and the threat and horrors of the Nazi regime had finally been defeated, Canadians from coast to coast took to the streets to celebrate.
And as they often do in times of joy and jubilation, Winnipeggers gathered that day at the intersection of Portage and Main.
An image by famous Winnipeg photographer L.B. Foote captured the moment — troops, citizens and dignitaries congregated around a small grandstand erected at the famous intersection.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Bill Zuk, secretary of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society's Manitoba Chapter, has been helping organize commemorative events to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe — VE-Day.
'It was a universal reaction, and a very spontaneous and organic reaction around the world on VE-Day,' said Bill Zuk, secretary of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society's Manitoba Chapter.
'There was a happiness that enveloped people, and people just took to the streets, including here in Winnipeg.'
The corner of Portage Avenue and Main Street has become known more recently as a spot where Winnipeggers gather to celebrate when local sports teams win championships.
But it was at that same famous intersection where Winnipeggers gathered 80 years ago to celebrate what has become known as Victory in Europe Day.
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This Thursday marks the 80th anniversary of VE-Day. On May 8, 1945, the Allied powers formally accepted the German army's unconditional surrender, marking the end of the Nazi regime and the reign of Adolf Hitler, and the cessation of six years of combat in Europe, in a war estimated to have taken the lives of between 60 and 75 million people worldwide.
'The mood that day was just a national jubilation,' Zuk said. 'City hall and the Eaton's building, and most of the buildings downtown were decorated, and people just started showing up at Portage and Main. There were parades and outdoor concerts, but it wasn't very organized, it was more that people just started to show up.
'It was very organic, and scenes like that were repeated all over the world.'
L.B. FOOTE / National Air Force Museum of Canada
Victory in Europe Day Parade in Winnipeg, May 8, 1945.
It also came with a great sense of relief that the nation was finally moving on from the war.
'The war was all-encompassing at that time,' Zuk said. 'In most families, men and boys were away fighting, and thousands of women were working in armament factories, so it became a common cause, and the focus of people's day-to-day lives.'
Zuk also has a personal connection to the Second World War with several of his relatives fighting abroad, and one losing their life in battle.
He is one member of a group working to organize a series of events in the coming months to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, including a VE-Day celebration and reception for veterans and their families that will take place Thursday in the Rotunda at the Manitoba Legislative Building beginning at noon.
The event is expected to be attended by as many as three Second World War veterans who are all now over the age of 100, including 103-year-old Charleswood resident Len Van Ron, who was among the thousands of soldiers in Normandy on June 6, 1944, during the historic D-Day landing, when Allied forces stormed the beaches in then-Nazi-occupied France.
Zuk says Van Ron's story is just one example of the bravery and sacrifices Canadians experienced during the war, and as we near the anniversary of VE-Day, he hopes history records how important Canada was to the overall war effort, and to the Allied victory.
'Canada really punched above its weight,' he said. 'We had 60 squadrons in the air force, we had two or three major armies in combat freeing entire nations like Holland, we had the third-largest navy in the world, we trained the pilots who flew in the war, and we had the convoys that supplied the food that sustained (Britain) during the war.
City of Winnipeg Archives
The former Eaton's building on Portage Avenue was decorated with flags to celebrate VE-Day.
'We did so much more than people would have known. Canadians paid in blood and in sacrifice.'
Ontario-based historian and author Ted Barris, who has written extensively about the Second World War, agrees that Canada pulled its weight and showed its value as a young nation in the war, and said part of the reason so many Canadians got behind the war effort was because they knew very clearly who the enemy was and what they were fighting against.
'In the First World War, it wasn't always clear who the enemy was, because it was mostly a war being fought in Europe over territory,' Barris said. 'But in the Second World War it was very obvious who the enemy was, and how large that threat was.
'You had fascist leaders who were clearly power-hungry, racist and territorial, and with the power and the might of their armies just did whatever they hell the wanted, so that enemy became evident a lot more in the Second World War.
'And with a visible enemy you had men who would say, 'This threat is so great that I am willing to fight, even if it comes at my own peril.'
'Men were willing to die to stop this threat.'
Barris hopes that courage and those sacrifices continue to be understood and valued as we near the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War — it officially ended Sept. 2, 1945, with the surrender of Japan — and also hopes Canadians appreciate the scope of the joy and relief that washed over the country when the Nazis were defeated and VE-Day was celebrated eight decades ago.
'It was celebratory, it was upbeat and happy,' he said. 'Kids were running up and down the streets banging on cans and letting off firecrackers and burning effigies of Hitler and so on.
City of Winnipeg Archives
Hurtig Furs' Portage Avenue store created a victory display in honour of VE-Day in 1945.
'Everyone recognized that they had survived, the war is behind us, so now let's roll out the good times and look forward to a brighter future.'
And as Zuk and others in Manitoba continue to plan Thursday's celebration, he said the 80th anniversary of VE-Day should also serve as a reminder to Canadians about what can happen when dictators and authoritarian regimes take power.
'I think we're once again in a very perilous time,' Zuk said. 'But one thing the Second World War taught us and what VE-Day reminds us of, is that we have the ability to come out of this the right way.'
Dave Baxter is a Winnipeg writer.