In addition to 8 May 2025 being the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe, April, May, June and July 2025 are the 80th anniversary of what the French call “le Retour” (the Return).

There were millions of displaced persons in Europe when the Third Reich surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. Some were prisoners of war. Some were forced laborers including men drafted from France to work in German factories or farmers and Ukrainian villagers, some as young as 14, rounded up at gunpoint to work in the Third Reich. Some were Jews who survived the Holocaust. Some were political prisoners who had been deported to the concentration camps. Political prisoner was a capacious definition which included political enemies of Nazism such as Socialists or Communists or even Catholic priests and nuns; resisters of all varieties; homosexuals; Sinti and Roma; hostages taken to terrorize an occupied populace and others. There were also people of all ages who had crossed one or more international borders while trying to escape the battles. “Displaced persons” does not, technically, included people who had left their homes but remained in their home countries.

Obviously all these people did not sit quietly in their concentration camps after Allied troops liberated them waiting for the war to officially end. Many started walking home. The western Allies started arranging transport as soon as they started liberating prisoners in April 1945. They sent liberated prisoners home in long convoys of trucks and on military planes. The home countries attempted to control this return through “welcome centers” where displaced persons were vetted to find collaborators trying to whitewash themselves and given medical exams and perhaps clothing and food.

The return of thousands, even millions, or malnourished and traumatized people had a searing impact on the civilians who had been waiting at home, hoping that their loved ones would return. My father, then a boy of six, vividly remembers seeing truck after truck of forced laborers and prisoners driving through his town. In more than one town in France the sight of returning POWs, forced laborers and prisoners sparked violence against German POWs and collaborators.

The Return also meant the loss of hope for those who were waiting for someone to come home who did not come home.

The end of the Second World War was not all dancing in the streets and celebrations for civilians. It was also deep emotional shock, grief and in some cases more violence.