Couple find letters dating from World War II on station bench

A bundle of letters written during the Second World War and found on a bench at Utrecht railway station, is waiting to be reunited with its rightful owner, the AD said on Tuesday

The finders, Rens and Maartje Zonnenberg from Vught, spotted an unattended plastic bag which later turned out to contain some 150 letters.

‘The big question is: how did they get there? They are mainly letters between two people, one living in Herzogenrath, just over the German border, and one living in Heerlen,’ Zonnenberg told the paper.

In order to find the owners of the letters Zonnenberg put his story on Facebook. He also made public part of the letters in the hope the owner will come forward.

‘They are mainly stories, about what life was like in those days, what they ate and whether things were still safe. ‘My dearest..I am writing to tell you things are still well’, one reads.

Most letters date from between 1943 and 1944. Zonnenberg also registered the find with the NS lost property department in an effort to find the person who left the letters.

Update 11.50

The owner of the letters, a 72-year-old man from Brunssum has been traced, according to local broadcaster 1Limburg.

Ad Müller had picked up the letters, which were written by his parents, from his sister in Bilthoven so that his daughter could read them. But he left the bag behind in his hurry to get on the train in Utrecht, the broadcaster said.