The Crucified Soldier

Common card · No. 366241

"The Crucified Soldier" was a myth among the allies of World War I, describing German soldiers supposedly crucifying an Allied soldier to a barn door or tree somewhere on the Western Front. The victim is typically described as a still-living sergeant of the Canadian Corps, though the details of the crime, including the origin, rank, and number of victims, vary between tellings. Eyewitnesses claim they saw an unidentified crucified Canadian soldier near the battlefield of Ypres, Belgium, on or around 24 April 1915, but accounts were contradictory, no crucified body was recovered and the identity of the alleged crucified soldier was not discovered at the time. A dramatized depiction titled Canada's Golgotha was the subject of a formal complaint by the German government during peace negotiations in 1919, forcing Canada to retract claims as to the event's veracity upon being unable to provide the Germans with proof. The story has since been largely dismissed as an urban legend or work of atrocity...

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