Manhunt
Barbie was identified as being in
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
in 1971 by
Serge Serge may refer to:
*Serge (fabric), a type of twill fabric
*Serge (llama) (born 2005), a llama in the Cirque Franco-Italien and internet meme
*Serge (name), a masculine given name (includes a list of people with this name)
*Serge (post), a hitchi ...
and
Beate Klarsfeld
Beate Auguste Klarsfeld (née Künzel; born 13 February 1939) is a Franco-German journalist and Nazi hunter who, along with her French husband, Serge, became famous for their investigation and documentation of numerous Nazi war criminals, inc ...
(
Nazi hunter
A Nazi hunter is an individual who tracks down and gathers information on alleged former Nazis, or SS members, and Nazi collaborators who were involved in the Holocaust, typically for use at trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against huma ...
s from France) who came across a secret document that revealed his alias. On 19 January 1972, this information was published in the French newspaper ''
L'Aurore
''L’Aurore'' (; ) was a literary, liberal, and socialist newspaper published in Paris, France, from 1897 to 1914. Its most famous headline was Émile Zola's '' J'Accuse...!'' leading into his article on the Dreyfus Affair.
The newspaper was ...
'', along with a photograph of Altmann which the Klarsfelds obtained from a German expatriate living in Lima, Peru. In Peru, Barbie provided security services to the junta of General Juan Velasco following the military coup of 3 October 1968, including surveillance of the U.S. diplomatic mission led by John Irwin in March 1969.
Led by Beate Klarsfeld, French journalist
Ladislas de Hoyos
Count Ladislas de Hoyos (''Ladislaus Alfons Konstantin Heinrich Johannes de Hoyos''; ) born into the Austro-Hungarian Counts de Hoyos family (27 March 1939 – 8 December 2011) was a French TV journalist and politician.
He was news broadca ...
and cameraman Christian van Ryswyck flew to La Paz in January 1972 in order to find and interview Klaus Barbie posing as his alias Klaus Altmann. The interview took place on 3 February 1972 in the Department of the Interior building and the following day, in prison where Klaus was placed under protection by the Bolivian authorities. In the videotape, and while the interview was conducted in Spanish, Ladislas de Hoyos steers away from the previously agreed upon questions by asking whether Barbie has ever been to Lyon in French, a language he is not supposed to understand under his fake identity, to which Klaus Barbie automatically responds by the negative in German. Ladislas de Hoyos gave him photos of members of Resistance he had tortured, asking him if he recognized their faces, and while he returned them in denial, his fingerprints unmistakenly betrayed him. It was in this interview, later broadcast on French TV Channel
Antenne 2
France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews.
Since 3:20 CET on 7 ...
that he was recognized by French resistance member Simone Lagrange who had been tortured by Klaus Barbie in 1944.
Despite global outcry, Barbie was able to return to Bolivia where the government refused to extradite him, stating that France and Bolivia did not have an extradition treaty and that the
statute of limitations
A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In m ...
on his crimes had expired. Barbie's close fascist friends knew who he was, but to the public Barbie insisted he was none other than his innocent alter-ego "Altmann" and in the videotaped interview conducted by Ladislas de Hoyos which he allowed, he continued to lie about never having been in Lyon, never knowing
Jean Moulin
Jean Pierre Moulin (; 20 June 1899 – 8 July 1943) was a French civil servant and French Resistance, resistant who served as the first President of the National Council of the Resistance during World War II from 27 May 1943 until his death less ...
or having been in the Gestapo. However, in the 1970s, the community of refugee Jews who had survived or escaped the war, openly discussed the fact that Barbie was the war criminal from Lyon now living on the Calle Landaeta in
La Paz
La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities ...
and frequenting the Café de La Paz daily.
Journalist and reporter
Peter McFarren
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a su ...
and a journalist for ''The New York Times'' said that while they were outside Barbie's house in Bolivia in 1981, wanting to speak to him for an article, they saw Barbie in a window while they were taking photos and shortly thereafter they were taken away by twelve armed paramilitary men who had quickly arrived in a van and asked what they were doing there.
The testimony of Italian insurgent
Stefano Delle Chiaie
Stefano Delle Chiaie (13 September 1936, Caserta – 10 September 2019, Rome) was an Italian neo-fascist terrorist. He was the founder of ''Avanguardia Nazionale'', a member of '' Ordine Nuovo'', and founder of Lega nazionalpopolare. He went on ...
before the Italian Parliamentary Commission on Terrorism suggests that Barbie took part in the "cocaine coup" of Luis García Meza, when the regime forced its way to power in Bolivia in 1980.
Extradition, trial and death
In 1983, the newly elected democratic government of
Hernán Siles Zuazo
Hernán Siles Zuazo (21 March 1914 – 6 August 1996) was a Bolivian politician who served as the 46th president of Bolivia twice nonconsecutively from 1956 to 1960 and from 1982 to 1985. He also briefly served as interim president in April 195 ...
arrested Barbie in La Paz on the pretext of his owing the government US$10,000 for goods he was supposed to have delivered but did not. A few days later, the government delivered him to France to stand trial.
Shortly after Barbie's extradition, evidence emerged that Barbie had worked for US intelligence in Germany and that US agents may have been instrumental in Barbie's flight to Bolivia to escape prosecution in France.
Allan Ryan, Director of the
Office of Special Investigations (OSI) of the US Justice Department, recommended to US Attorney General
William French Smith
William French Smith II (August 26, 1917 – October 29, 1990) was an American lawyer and the 74th United States Attorney General. After attaining his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1942, Smith went on to join the law firm of Gibson, Du ...
that the matter be investigated. Following a lengthy investigation and a full report that was released to the public, Ryan concluded that "officers of the United States government were directly responsible for protecting a person wanted by the government of France on criminal charges and in arranging his escape from the law." Ryan felt that the initial decision for the US government to use Barbie during
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
counter-intelligence work, while reprehensible in light of his war-crimes, might be defended on national security interest grounds. Doing so was no different from what other World War II victor nations were doing at the time; it appeared to have been done without any
US Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) knowledge of Barbie's atrocities in Lyon. After those atrocities became well publicised, however, Ryan regarded it as indefensible for CIC personnel to lie to higher US authorities and help Barbie escape Europe to Bolivia rather than honour an outstanding French warrant for his arrest. As a result of Ryan's report and personal recommendation, the US government made a formal apology to France for enabling Barbie to escape French justice for 33 years.
In 1984, Barbie was indicted for crimes committed as
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...
chief in Lyon between 1942 and 1944, chief among which was the
Rue Sainte-Catherine Roundup. The
jury trial
A jury trial, or trial by jury, is a Trial, legal proceeding in which a jury makes a decision or Question of law, findings of fact. It is distinguished from a bench trial in which a judge or Judicial panel, panel of judges makes all decisions.
...
started on 11 May 1987 in Lyon before the
Rhône
The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...
''
Cour d'Assises
In France, a ''cour d'assises'', or Court of Assizes or Assize Court, is a criminal trial court with original and appellate limited jurisdiction to hear cases involving defendants accused of felonies, meaning crimes as defined in French law. ...
''. Unusually, the court allowed the trial to be filmed because of its historical value. A special courtroom was constructed with seating for an audience of about 700. The head prosecutor was
Pierre Truche. Barbie's role in Hitler's
Final Solution
The Final Solution (german: die Endlösung, ) or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question (german: Endlösung der Judenfrage, ) was a Nazi plan for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews during World War II. The "Final Solution to th ...
was the issue.
Barbie's defence was funded by Swiss pro-Nazi financier
François Genoud
François Genoud (26 October 1915 – 30 May 1996) was a noted Swiss financier and a principal benefactor of the Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is t ...
and led by attorney
Jacques Vergès
Jacques Vergès (5 March 1925 – 15 August 2013) was a Siamese-born French lawyer and anti-colonial activist. Vergès began as a fighter in the French Resistance during World War II, under Charles de Gaulle's Free French forces. After becoming ...
. Barbie was tried on 41 separate counts of
crimes against humanity
Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
, based on the depositions of 730 Jews and French Resistance survivors who described how he tortured and murdered prisoners.
The father of French
Minister for Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry.
Lists of current ministries of justice
Named "Ministry"
* Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia)
* Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan)
* Ministry of Just ...
Robert Badinter
Robert Badinter (; born 30 March 1928) is a French lawyer, politician and author who enacted the abolition of the death penalty in France in 1981, while serving as Minister of Justice under François Mitterrand. He has also served in high-lev ...
had died in
Sobibor
Sobibor (, Polish: ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of German-occupied Poland.
As an ...
after being deported from Lyon during Barbie's tenure.
Barbie gave his name as Klaus Altmann, the name that he used while in Bolivia. He claimed that his extradition was technically illegal and asked to be excused from the trial and returned to his cell at
Prison Saint-Paul
Prison Saint-Paul, also named Prison Saint-Paul - Saint Joseph was the maison d'arrêt of Lyon, France, located in the Confluence quarter, 2nd arrondissement of Lyon, in the south of the Gare de Lyon-Perrache. It was so named because of its proxi ...
. This was granted. He was brought back to court on 26 May 1987 to face some of his accusers, about whose testimony he had "nothing to say".
Barbie's defence lawyer, Vergès, had a reputation for attacking the French political system, particularly in the historic
French colonial empire
The French colonial empire () comprised the overseas colonies, protectorates and mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. A distinction is generally made between the "First French Colonial Empire", that exist ...
. His strategy was to use the trial to talk about war crimes committed by France since 1945. He got the prosecution to drop some of the charges against Barbie due to French legislation that had protected French citizens accused of the same crimes under the
Vichy regime
Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...
and in
French Algeria
French Algeria (french: Alger to 1839, then afterwards; unofficially , ar, الجزائر المستعمرة), also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of French colonisation of Algeria. French rule in the region began in 1830 with the ...
. Vergès tried to argue that Barbie's actions were no worse than the supposedly ordinary actions of
colonialists
Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...
worldwide, and that his trial was tantamount to
selective prosecution
In jurisprudence, selective prosecution is a procedural defense in which defendants argue that they should not be held criminally liable for breaking the law, as the criminal justice system discriminated against them by choosing to prosecute. In ...
. During his trial, Barbie said, "When I stand before the throne of God, I shall be judged innocent."
The court rejected the defence's argument. On 4 July 1987, Barbie was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in prison in Lyon four years later of
leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...
and spine and prostate cancer at the age of 77.
Personal life
In April 1939, Barbie became engaged to Regina Margaretta Willms, the 23-year-old daughter of a postal clerk; they had two children, a son named Klaus-Georg Altmann and a daughter named Ute Messner.
In 1983, Françoise Croizier, Klaus Barbie's French daughter-in-law, said in an interview that the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
kidnapped Klaus-Georg in 1946 to make sure his father carried out intelligence missions for the agency. Croizier met Klaus-Georg while both were students in Paris; they married in 1968, had three children and lived in Europe and Bolivia using the surname Altmann. Croizier said when she married she did not know who her father-in-law was, but that she could guess the reasons for a German to settle in South America after the war. Klaus-Georg died in a hang-gliding accident in 1981.
In media
* The 1988 American documentary film ''
Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie'', directed by the German-French director
Marcel Ophuls
Marcel Ophuls (; born 1 November 1927) is a German-French documentary film maker and former actor, best known for his films ''The Sorrow and the Pity'' and '' Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie''.
Life and career
Ophuls was bor ...
, details Barbie's life between childhood and the trial near the end of his life. The film received the Academy Award for
Best Documentary.
* The British–French documentary film ''
My Enemy's Enemy
''My Enemy's Enemy'' (''Mon Meilleur Ennemi'', My best enemy in french) is a documentary film directed by Kevin Macdonald in 2007.
Synopsis
The story of Klaus Barbie through World War II and post-war hiding journey in Bolivia including his i ...
'' (''Mon Meilleur Ennemi'' in French) is the story of Klaus Barbie, following him through World War II and post-war hiding journey in Bolivia. It depicts his involvement in the assassination of
Che Guevara
Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quoted ...
. It also discusses his French trial for war crimes committed in Lyon, such as the torture of
Jean Moulin
Jean Pierre Moulin (; 20 June 1899 – 8 July 1943) was a French civil servant and French Resistance, resistant who served as the first President of the National Council of the Resistance during World War II from 27 May 1943 until his death less ...
.
* In the 2001 film ''
Rat Race
A rat race is an endless, self-defeating, or pointless pursuit. The phrase equates humans to rats attempting to earn a reward such as cheese, in vain. It may also refer to a competitive struggle to get ahead financially or routinely.
The term is ...
'', the Pear family visits a museum dedicated to Klaus Barbie, located in the southwest United States, after mistakenly thinking it was a museum dedicated to
the famous doll.
* Barbie is played by
Marc Rissmann
Marc Rissmann (also spelled Rißmann, born 1980) is a German actor. He has appeared in films like ''Overlord,'' and TV series like ''The Last Kingdom'', ''Game of Thrones'', and ''The Man in the High Castle''.
Early life and career
Marc Riss ...
in the 2019 movie ''
A Call to Spy''.
* Barbie is portrayed by
Matthias Schweighöfer
Matthias Schweighöfer (; born 11 March 1981) is a German actor, voice actor, film director, and producer.
Early life
Born in Anklam, Western Pomerania, Schweighöfer attended Berlin's renowned acting school Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Art ...
in the 2020 film ''
Resistance,'' which is a free adaptation of the experiences of the French mime
Marcel Marceau
Marcel Marceau (; born Marcel Mangel; 22 March 1923 – 22 September 2007) was a French actor and mime artist most famous for his stage persona, "Bip the Clown". He referred to mime as the "art of silence", and he performed professionally worldw ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, when he helped to save Jewish children from deportation to
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
as a member of the
Jewish resistance. Barbie is the main antagonist as the group operates within
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...
.
* In the video game ''
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands'', which is set in a very fictionalized Bolivia, Barbie's house can be found and explored with the player's squad members commenting on Klaus and his Nazi ties.
See also
*
Operation Condor
Operation Condor ( es, link=no, Operación Cóndor, also known as ''Plan Cóndor''; pt, Operação Condor) was a United States–backed campaign of political repression and state terror involving intelligence operations and assassination of o ...
*
Operation Bloodstone
Operation Bloodstone was a covert operation whereby the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sought out Nazis and collaborators living in Soviet-controlled areas, to work undercover for U.S. intelligence inside of the Soviet Union, Latin America, an ...
*
Glossary of Nazi Germany
This is a list of words, terms, concepts and slogans of Nazi Germany used in the historiography covering the Nazi regime.
Some words were coined by Adolf Hitler and other Nazi Party members. Other words and concepts were borrowed and appropriated, ...
*
List of Nazi Party leaders and officials
This is a list of Nazi Party (NSDAP) leaders and officials. It is not meant to be an all inclusive list.
A
* Gunter d'Alquen – Chief Editor of the SS official newspaper, '' Das Schwarze Korps'' ("The Black Corps"), and commander of the SS ...
*
Alice Vansteenberghe
Alice Vansteenberghe (née Joly; 18 February 1908 - 9 February 1991) was a medical practitioner and a member of the French Resistance in World War II. In 1944, she was captured and tortured by the so-called "Butcher of Lyon", Klaus Barbie. She ...
References
Further reading
* https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/criminal-hrsp/legacy/2011/02/04/08-02-83barbie-rpt.pdf
*
* A chapter in this book also follows how top Nazis made their way to Argentina and Latin America.
* Hammerschmidt, Peter: "Die Tatsache allein, daß V-43 118 SS-Hauptsturmführer war, schließt nicht aus, ihn als Quelle zu verwenden". Der Bundesnachrichtendienst und sein Agent Klaus Barbie, in: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft (ZfG), 59. Jahrgang, 4/2011. METROPOL Verlag. Berlin 2011, S. 333–349.
* Case No. 77, Fn 908 KsD Lyon IV-B (gez.
Ostubaf. Barbie) an BdS, Paris IV-B, 6 April 1944, RF-1235.
*
*
External links
French Judicial Archives on Klaus Barbie
at the
German National Library
The German National Library (DNB; german: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to colle ...
*
*
Marcel Ophüls
Marcel Ophuls (; born 1 November 1927) is a German-French documentary film maker and former actor, best known for his films ''The Sorrow and the Pity'' and '' Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie''.
Life and career
Ophuls was bo ...
's
*
Kevin Macdonald’s
* (English: "Terror's Advocate")
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barbie, Klaus
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