On 8 May 1945, the 15-year-old Thomas Geve was in the Buchenwald DP camp. He had been committed to the Buchenwald concentration camp in February 1945 following detention in Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen. Years later, he would recall the news of the war’s end in his memoirs:

“May 8th: Armistice with Germany. The war in Europe was over. Fascism and all it stands for had surrendered.

Someone turned the knob of our radio set to search the ether. It was filled with the peals of victory. There was jubilation everywhere: London’s reverberating victory gong, giving the V sign – enthusiastic voices singing the rousing Marseillaise – the solemn, monumental tunes of the Soviet anthem, the chimes of the Kremlin – Berliners rising from the ruins to celebrate.

I turned about on my pillow and contemplated. It was peace. What would we make of it? Soon I would be sixteen. Before long I, too, would have my say.

Then I dozed off, dreaming about the future.”

Source: Thomas Geve, Youth in Chains, Jerusalem 1958.