![Jakob Leonhard allegedly fought against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. He was convicted in Switzerland on this count. Illustration by Marco Heer.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/anriss-erster-teil-300x173.jpg)
Allow me to introduce myself: Leonhard, war hero…
Jakob Leonhard fought against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. Or did he? The strange story of a Zurich taxi driver who slipped away mysteriously, only to return a hero.
TV documentary on the Spanish Civil War. YouTube / British Pathé
![Portrait of Jakob Leonhard in the 1930s.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/jakob-leonhard-vor-haft-203x300.jpg)
![The ‘hero’ of Spain told his story in Weltwoche magazine in 1945.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/zeitung-leonhard-300x187.jpg)
![The brutality of the war was particularly evident at the Battle of Guadalajara in 1937.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/truppen-spanien-300x222.jpg)
![Leonhard refused to accept the verdict. In a second trial, his sentence was reduced by one month to a total of seven months.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/haft-dokument-255x300.jpg)
Postcard as evidence
![In 1937 Leonhard wrote a postcard to his wife, Jda, on which he presented himself as a militiaman.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/postkarte-leonhard-208x300.jpg)
![](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/vorschau-leo-300x154.jpg)
In the second part you’ll find out how fraudster Jakob Leonhard became a double agent who supplied the Nazis with false information, and was sentenced to death for it. For weeks, his life hung by a thread…