ILLUSTRATION: DAWN COOPER
V FOR VICTORY
In January 1941, Victor De Laveleye, a Belgian politician working as a radio announcer in London, suggested the letter ‘V’ could be the symbol of resistance to Nazi Germany. It stood for victoire (meaning victory in French) as well as vrijheit (Flemish for freedom). The symbol, daubed on walls across Europe, was adopted as Winston Churchill’s famous finger gesture the following July.