Leonhard Buholzer, a young man from Central Switzerland, spent five years as legionnaire 5720 in the service of the French Foreign Legion. The Swiss mercenary experienced war, captivity and escape – experiences that shaped his entire life. Leonhard Buholzer was just 19 years old when he enlisted in Marseille at the end of the 1930s and joined the French Foreign Legion. Shortly after undergoing rigorous training in Tunisia, things got serious: the young Swiss man's cavalry regiment was sent to the front in France to fight against the German Wehrmacht. Buholzer was wounded and taken prisoner of war. After several attempts to escape, he finally ended up in Yugoslavia with Tito's partisans. After the end of the Second World War, Buholzer returned to his old home. The divisional court acquitted him, and he remained in Switzerland for almost 60 years as a truck driver. At the age of almost 90, he decided to return to the Legion and became a pensioner in a home for former legionnaires in southern France.
