In Berlin, major public events had been planned at the Brandenburg Gate and other historic sites in the German capital, with hundreds of thousands of people expected to attend.

This programme was called off in early April, with funding instead going into a digital initiative for the anniversary.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Angela Merkel laid wreaths at the Neue Wache Memorial to the victims of war and dictatorship in central Berlin.

Steinmeier characterized German defeat in 1945 as an act of liberation.

“We were liberated then. Today we have to liberate ourselves,” the German president said, pointing to the dangers of a new nationalism, hatred and incitement, along with “xenophobia and contempt for democracy.”

Germany bore responsibility for keeping Europe together as a consequence of its history, particularly currently during the novel coronavirus crisis.

Referring to 1945, Steinmeier said: “We turned the whole world into our enemies.”

Today, 75 years later, Germans were no longer alone. “That is the happy message of today. We live in a strong and established democracy in the 30th year of a united Germany, at the heart of a peaceful and united Europe,” Steinmeier said.

Just days before the anniversary, comments made by a leading figure in the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party caused a storm over how the historical event is remembered in the country.

AfD co-founder and honorary chairman Alexander Gauland was met with scorn after he referred to May 8, 1945, as an “absolute defeat” for the country.

Charlotte Knobloch, head of the Jewish community in Munich, described Gauland’s words as “intolerable” and as part of the AfD’s twisting of historical facts.

“But they change nothing about the fact that we pass this May 8 in freedom and democracy, which would have been unthinkable without May 8, 1945,” she said.

In Warsaw, Polish President Andrzej Duda described the anniversary as “bittersweet.” The end of the wartime atrocities had been followed by Poland falling into the Soviet sphere of influence, he noted.

“The country that was first to fight, was bereft of the fruits of victory,” Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz said in a statement.

The end of WWII brought true liberation only to states in Western Europe. Countries behind the Iron Curtain had to undergo a decades-long struggle to become truly independent, Czaputowicz said.

In Britain celebrations of the 75th anniversary included a parade near Buckingham Palace, but most events were postponed, cancelled or reduced to online commemorations.

Westminster Abbey had a virtual service of thanksgiving from midday (1100 GMT), and British television stations were to broadcast a recorded speech by Queen Elizabeth II at 9 pm, exactly 75 years after a radio broadcast to the nation by her father, King George VI, in 1945.

France’s traditional VE Day commemorations were also held in a restricted format due to a coronavirus lockdown.

President Emmanuel Macron was presiding over a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris with senior military officials, without members of the public being present.

In Wellington, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern paid tribute to the country’s veterans.

In a video address, Ardern said the day was a chance to pay tribute to the heroism and sacrifice shown by the country’s veterans.

“New Zealand remembers you are the ones who answered your country’s call. We honour your service and the sacrifice of your comrades who never came home.”