How to teach... Victory in Europe (VE) Day

Next week marks the anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day, the date on 8 May 1945 when the war with Germany came to a formal end. It was described as a time for a "brief period of rejoicing" by Prime Minister Winston Churchill as the war in east Asia continued.

Students can explore the events leading up to VE Day with two history resources that focus on the battles of the second world war. The first includes details and maps of the Russian victory at Stalingrad in 1943. The second looks at D-Day and Germany's inability to stop the Allied advance through Europe.

Defeat of Germany is a PowerPoint that describes the eventual fall of Berlin. The presentation examines life in Germany towards the end of the second world war and features a range of useful photographs and reflective questions. Pupils consider Joseph Goebbels' policy of "total war", the bombing of Dresden in February 1945 and the ultimate collapse of the Nazi administration.

Life in Germany during World War II investigates the impact of war on German civilians. The resource includes information about the death of Adolf Hitler on 30 April 1945 and the surrender of Germany a week later. Germany and World War II further examines the events that led up to the end of the war in Europe.

Nuremberg Trials is a PowerPoint presentation about the treatment of Germany after the war. Suitable for use with secondary pupils, it asks what happened to leading Nazis including Rudolf Hess and Herman Goering. It also examines the process of "Denazification", an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society of any remnants of the Nazi regime.

For learning and teaching about the effects on the second world war on children, the Imperial War Museum has created an activity pack for use with upper primary and lower secondary pupils. It contains lesson ideas, photographs and letters to help students explore what it was like to be an evacuee. The Second World War and the People of Britain is a research activity that uses a variety of sources to allow secondary pupils to investigate the impact of the war in the short and long term. There is a similar lesson pack for primary pupils.

Looking beyond VE Day, the Imperial War Museum has a range of materials aimed at raising awareness of the second world war as a global war. For primary pupils, there is a lesson pack that highlights the role of troops from Africa, Canada, India and Australia. For secondary pupils, there is a teaching activity that focuses on one man's story of being a Far East Prisoner of War.

The memories of servicemen involved in the second world war have been captured in a series of videos by Legasee, a not-for-profit organisation that specialises in films of military personnel who served their country between 1939 and the present day. RAF pilot Brian Bird recalls when his aircraft was attacked by German dive bombers en route to his training in Africa. Len Manning recounts the crash-landing of his Lancaster bomber in France, while Harry Card describes how he survived the sinking of HMS Swift.

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