Angels, Crucifixes, and Corpse Factories
Jan. 28th, 2009 12:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pyatWorking from home today, because of inclement weather and a night of allergies.
My co-worker![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
n_scale emailed me to ask if I'd ever read any Arthur Machen. I'd not, and my wiki search for the name led to some fascinating religious/superstitious beliefs of the First World War.
The Angels of Mons. This was a widespread belief that angelic warriors (in some versions, St. George himself) appeared on the battlefield in support of the British in August 1914. The belief stemmed from a piece of fantasy fiction written as a "false document" by Arthur Machen.
Photo by M. O'Leary, 2006.
Second, Canada's Golgotha. A story with local interest! Sergeant Harry Band of Brantford, Ontario (about 20 km from here) was supposedly crucified with bayonets on a barn door in April of 1915. It quite possibly never happened, though Band was indeed killed in the war. The details of the supposed event were exaggerated through the war, and in 1919 a bronze sculpture, "Canada's Golgotha", was made depicting the incident. The controversy over it meant that it was actually banned from public view until 1989.
KAISER (to 1917 Recruit). "AND DON'T FORGET THAT YOUR KAISER WILL FIND A USE FOR YOU — ALIVE OR DEAD."
Finally, the Kadaververwertungsanstalt, or corpse factories, supposedly used by the Germans to made lubricants and soap out of fallen soldiers. This legend apparently originated from a 60 word "filler piece" in a German newspaper about what happens to dead livestock. Of course, WWII made the legend of the Kadaververwertungsanstalt seem positively benign...
My co-worker
n_scale emailed me to ask if I'd ever read any Arthur Machen. I'd not, and my wiki search for the name led to some fascinating religious/superstitious beliefs of the First World War.The Angels of Mons. This was a widespread belief that angelic warriors (in some versions, St. George himself) appeared on the battlefield in support of the British in August 1914. The belief stemmed from a piece of fantasy fiction written as a "false document" by Arthur Machen.
Photo by M. O'Leary, 2006.
Second, Canada's Golgotha. A story with local interest! Sergeant Harry Band of Brantford, Ontario (about 20 km from here) was supposedly crucified with bayonets on a barn door in April of 1915. It quite possibly never happened, though Band was indeed killed in the war. The details of the supposed event were exaggerated through the war, and in 1919 a bronze sculpture, "Canada's Golgotha", was made depicting the incident. The controversy over it meant that it was actually banned from public view until 1989.
KAISER (to 1917 Recruit). "AND DON'T FORGET THAT YOUR KAISER WILL FIND A USE FOR YOU — ALIVE OR DEAD."
Finally, the Kadaververwertungsanstalt, or corpse factories, supposedly used by the Germans to made lubricants and soap out of fallen soldiers. This legend apparently originated from a 60 word "filler piece" in a German newspaper about what happens to dead livestock. Of course, WWII made the legend of the Kadaververwertungsanstalt seem positively benign...
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-28 05:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-28 07:04 pm (UTC)I can add one weird bit of WWI lore for you, too. Basically antisemitism prompted the German command to investigate the idea that German Jews were getting off easy and not going to the front - this was in 1916. What the resulting commission found was that, presumably thanks to antisemitism, a Jew had more chance of winding up in a front line position. So instead of publishing the data they sat on it instead.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-29 01:27 am (UTC)Swiped!
Date: 2009-01-29 06:53 am (UTC)So good I stole it (http://ankhorite.livejournal.com/242834.html).
Thanks!