The Violette Memorial Picnic was yet another momentous and moving experience. Among the stories of heroism and the tributes to those who sacrificed their lives for freedom, especially Violette, of course, one moment rang out with a message of reconcilation and hope.

Everyone present, from filmstars to Mayors, standard bearers to young Scouts and Guides stood and applauded in a message to the people of Ravensbrück, where Violette, and three other SOE agents lost their lives.

A letter sent from the director of Ravensbrück, Dr Ensa Eschebach, the concentration camp where Violette Szabo was executed, was read out by Dr Stephen Whitmore.

In the same week that the Queen visited Belsen 70 years after it was liberated, Dr Whitmore asked those present on a sunny afternoon, in a pleasant garden in Herefordshire, to imagine what it must be like for the people archiving this horrific period of history.

Dr Whitmore said: "The people running it now have been left this appalling legacy. They are doing their best to remember the fine detail of what happened so nobody can deny it."

He told them that every day they are trying to complete a record of the horrors inflicted by their countrymen, in this place which is in their country, he said it is 'a hell of a legacy'.

The reading of the sensitive and touching letter of apology was recorded, as well as the response to it, so that those in Ravensbrück know that their work is appreciated.

For the full report, and lots more pictures, see this week's edition of the Ross Gazette.