‘You are free again’: farewell letters of executed Belgian resistance fighters found, 80 years on

The coffins of 34 Belgian resistance fighters executed by the German army. Photograph: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images

Christel Van Iseghem was sitting in a radio studio when she heard the last words of her great uncle Norbert, murdered by the Nazis for his role in the Belgian resistance.

“My heart stood still,” said the 71-year-old from Kallo in Flanders. “This was something I didn’t know existed. I sat there shaking, my hands trembling … It means so much to me. He will not be forgotten.”