Klaus Barbie
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| Klaus Barbie | |
|---|---|
 SS and Gestapo Commander Lyon , France |
Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyon (October 25, 1913 – September 25, 1991) was a German soldier and Gestapo member.
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[edit] Early life
Klaus Barbie was born in Bad Godesberg, Bonn into a Catholic family. His parents were both teachers. Until 1923 he went to the school where his father taught. Afterward, he attended a boarding school in Trier. In 1925, his whole family moved to Trier. In 1933, Barbie’s father and brother both died.
In September 1935, he joined the SD or Sicherheitsdienst (security service), a special branch of the SS. Soon he was sent to serve in the Netherlands. In 1942, he was sent to Dijon and November of the same year he was sent to Lyon where he became the head of the Gestapo.
[edit] War crimes
He first set up camp at Hôtel Terminus. It was the time as a head of Gestapo of Lyon that earned him the name the Butcher of Lyon. He personally tortured prisoners and is blamed for the deaths of 4,000 people [1]. He is best known primarily for one of his 'cases', the arrest and torture of Jean Moulin, one of the highest ranking members of the French Resistance. In April 1944, Barbie ordered the deportation to Auschwitz of a group of 44 Jewish children from an orphanage at Izieu.
In 1947, Barbie became an agent for the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC). In 1951, he fled to Juan Peron's Argentina with the help of a ratline organized by the Ustashi Roman Catholic priest Krunoslav Draganović. Asked by Barbie why he was going out of his way to help him escape, Draganovic responded: "We have to maintain a sort of moral reserve on which we can draw in the future." [2]. He then emigrated to Bolivia, where he lived under the alias Klaus Altmann. With Italian terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie and the Argentine SIDE, he took part in the 'Cocaine Coup' of Luis García Meza Tejada, when the regime forced its way to power in Bolivia in 1980 [3].
[edit] Trial
Barbie was identified in Bolivia as early as 1971 by the Klarsfelds (Nazi hunters), but it was only on January 19, 1983, that the newly-elected government of Hernán Siles Zuazo arrested and extradited him to France.
In 1984, Barbie was put on trial for crimes committed while he was in charge of the Gestapo in Lyon between 1942 and 1944. At the trial Barbie received support not only from Nazi apologists like François Genoud, but also from leftist lawyer Jacques Vergès. He had a reputation for attacking the French political system, particularly in French colonial territories. Vergès' strategy at the trial was to use the trial to expose war crimes committed by France since 1945. Indeed, many of the charges against Barbie were dropped, thanks to legislation that had protected people accused of crimes under the Vichy regime and in French Algeria.
His trial started on May 11, 1987, in Lyon — a jury trial before the Rhône Court d'Assises. In a rare move, the court allowed the trial to be filmed because of its historical value. The lead defense attorney was Jacques Vergès, who argued that Barbie's actions were no worse than the ordinary actions of colonialists worldwide, and that his trial was selective prosecution. The head prosecutor was Pierre Duche.
On July 4, 1987, Barbie was sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity, and died in prison of leukemia four years later, at the age of 77.
[edit] Cultural references
- A documentary film on Barbie's life during and after World War II is available under the title Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie. The film was directed by Marcel Ophüls and amounts to four and a half hours of investigative journalism; it won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature in 1989.
- Ex-CIC agent Erhard Dabringhaus, who worked against the Soviets during the Cold War, recognized Barbie on TV and wrote a book about his contribution to the United States (Erhard Dabringhaus, 1984, Klaus Barbie, Washington, D.C.: Acropolis Books).
- In the 2001 movie Rat Race, a Jewish family visits the "Barbie Museum," which they mistakenly assume to be dedicated to the Barbie doll, but turns out be dedicated to Klaus Barbie.
- In the movie Lucie,the actor playing Barbie is taller and is slim, whereas Barbie was small and tubby.The movie is based on the true fact of Raymond & Lucie Aubrac who were members of the French Resistance and Monsieur Aubrac was imprisoned,interrogated and tortured by Barbie.
[edit] Further reading
ISBN 3-88395-431-4 > Barbie (SS, Lyon), p. 453 Fn, O&W ed. 110 case No. 77, Fn 908 KsD Lyon IV-B (gez. Ostubaf. Barbie) an BdS, Paris IV-B, 6. April 1944, RF-1235
ISBN 10-18620-75522 > GONI, Uki: "The Real Odessa: How Peron Brought the Nazi War Criminals to Argentina". Granta Books; Reprint edition(September 2003). There is a chapter in this book also, it follows the path of how top Nazis made their way to Argentina and Latin America.
[edit] External links
