Klaus Barbie

Klaus Barbie
SS-Obersturmführer Barbie
Birth date	25 October 1913
Place of birth	Godesberg, Kreis Bonn, Regierungsbezirk Köln, Rhine Province, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Death date	25 September 1991 (aged 77)
Place of death	Lyon, France
Allegiance	National Socialist Germany
Service/branch	Hitler Youth Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst (FAD) Heer SS
Years of service	1933–1935 1934 1938 1935–1945
Rank	HJ-Kameradschaftsführer FAD-Arbeitsmann Schütze and NCO candidate SS-Hauptsturmführer
Service number	#272,284 SD #172,671 NSDAP #4,583,085
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	Iron Cross War Merit Cross (1939)
Relations	∞ 1940 Regine Willms
Other work	Businessman

Nikolaus "Klaus" Barbie (1913–1991) was a German SS officer during the Second World War who became particularly well-known for his uncompromising fight against blood-thirsty partisans (French resistance) in the Lyon area. Barbie's greatest triumph, with the help of Rene Hardy, a French resistance leader (tried for treason in 1947 and again in 1950), was the arrest of the terrorist and mass murderer Jean Moulin, head of the coordinating committee of all Resistance groups in France and a confidant of General Charles de Gaulle. Moulin died in custody in June 1943. The French swore revenge, but it wasn't until the 1980s that they were able to carry it out, at which point they had to arrest an elderly, upstanding, although expelled Bolivian citizen.

Life

Otto Skorzeny and Klaus Barbie celebrating carnival in Spain. The location was probably the Skorzeny chalet on Mallorca. Barbie and his family visited Spain several times from Bolivia.

Ute Regine Messner (Barbie), Lyon 1983

Klaus Barbie at the opening of his trial on 11 May 1987. On 4 February 1983, the now 69-year-old Bolivian citizen had been deported to Cayenne in French Guiana on a Bolivian military plane, allegedly due to tax evasion. It was only many years later that it became known that France had facilitated the extradition by promising to supply weapons to Bolivia.

Klaus Barbie in the courtroom with an interpreter in May 1987; Barbie's defense, led by Jacques Vergès, used all legal means to delay the trial and challenge the legitimacy of the charges, leading to further delays.

Barbie was born in Godesberg (1925 renamed Bad Godesberg), which is today part of Bonn. The Barbie family came from Merzig, in the Saar near the French border. Barbie grew up in the tranquil village of Udler in the Volcanic Eifel region. At the age of 11, following the intercession of the village priest, he entered the Episcopal Jesuit College in Trier and attended the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium as a boarding student. Even as a schoolboy, he was considered "a natural authority," as classmates later reported. He loved the punctuality, orderliness, and camaraderie of boarding school life, but surprisingly struggled academically.

After his father's early retirement in 1929 (alternative sources state c. 1925), the family also moved to Trier. Barbie then had to move into his parents' apartment, which he did only reluctantly. He finally passed his Abitur (university entrance exam) on his second attempt at Easter 1933 (another source even states Easter 1934 on his third attempt). He had to give up his dream and heartfelt wish to study philosophy and law. His father had died in 1933, and the family lacked financial resources. Thus, Klaus Barbie was initially unemployed, but he remained active and did not lose heart.

From 1 April 1933 to 25 September 1935, he was a voluntary leader (ehrenamtlicher Führer) of the Hitler Youth, since February 1935 personal adjutant of the head of the Hitler Youth local group Trier/Mitte (this duty was his first salaried service). He served with the FAD from 28 April to 1 November 1934 (FAD Lager near Osburg focused on land reclamation and road-building in the Mosel Valley). This period bridged his HJ-Kameradschaftsführer role (1933–1935) and SS-Anwärter entry, showing his early credentials contributing to the Volksgemeinschaft.

Since February 1935, he also worked voluntarily and unsalaried for the SD. On 25/26 September 1935 ("full-time"; hauptamtlich), he officially joined the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), his admission date to the SS is 1 October 1935. Training would continue for the next two years before he was actively serving with the SD.

From 5 September to 3 December 1938, he served with the Infanterie-Regiment 39 in Münster (drafted into military service by Military District XII, assigned to Infantry Regiment 39/Military District VI.). He was released early and placed on "uk" (unabkömmlich; indispensable) status because the SD requested him to return to duty (special leave to resume SD duties). This was a standard exemption for SS/SD personnel deemed critical to the NS security apparatus. This shielded him from further conscription under the Wehrgesetz, allowing full-time SD duties. Without it, he might have been recalled for the 1939 mobilization. Postwar CIC files (NARA T-1022) echo this, describing him as "exempted for intelligence work." This aligns with broader SS policy: ~20 % of mid-level SD men received "uk" waivers by 1939 to prioritize ideological operatives over general Heer service.

During the war, he was first stationed in the Netherlands, which had fallen on 15 May 1940. On 29 May 1940, he was transferred to the Sicherheitspolizei (Sipo) / Sicherheitsdienst (SD)-Aussenstelle Amsterdam, under the command of SS-Sturmbannführer Willy Lages at the Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD (BdS) in The Hague. Barbie's personnel file gives no explicit indication of his activity in Holland; but his official assignment as of October 1940 was an assistant Referent (Hilfsreferent) in Subsection III C ("Culture"), whose responsibility was to report any anti-German tendency in the area of science, education, religion, sports, entertainment, and propaganda to the appropriate executive agency. His commander stated that Barbie was "especially hardworking and responsible"; that he had dedicated himself in Holland "completely and intensively to SD work"; that his performance was "excellent"; and that his " bearing on duty and off was irreproachable."

Barbie's section was part of a new office that resulted from a reorganization of the police and intelligence apparatus in September 1939. The Security Police, comprising the Gestapo (secret police) and the criminal police, was joined with the SD into one centralized organization designated the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA; Reich Security Main Office), headed by Reinhard Heydrich. The organization of the RSHA and the constantly shifting relationships between the Gestapo, the criminal police and the SD were almost incomprehensible in their complexity. It is assumed, Barbie served with Section VI (foreign intelligence, SD), not with Section IV (Gestapo), as often claimed in post-war sources.

Barbie's personnel file does not specify how long he remained in Holland, although a letter in the file indicates that he was still there in July 1941. Nor does it describe what happened to Barbie after he left Holland, but a promotion recommendation from November 1944 reviews Barbie's career and indicates an assignment in Belgium and later with Section VI in Gex on the Swiss border, which probably took place sometime between July 1941 and May 1942.

On 1 May 1942, he arrived in Lyon and was appointed kommissarischer Leiter (acting head) of KdS Lyon (Sipo-SD Außenstelle). On 7 May 1942, the French Resistance ambushed a convoy near Vienne (southeastern France, located 35 kilometres south of Lyon); Barbie was wounded by glass/splinter ("minor splinter injury to the left shoulder"). On 8 May 1942, he was admitted to the Lyon Military Hospital (Lazarett IVb, Hôpital de l’Antiquaille).

On 1 August 1942, he was officially confirmation as head of the KdS (Kommando der Sicherheitspolizei) Lyon (backdated to 1 May in some files). He was efficient, and responsible for the arrest on 21 June 1943 of Jean Moulin, a key member of the so-called French Resistance, and his most prominent captive. In November 1942, the southern zone was of France was occupied by the Germans after the successful Allied invasion of North Africa. With the occupation of the south, the Security Police and the SD formed a comprehensive network of offices to solidify German authority throughout France. These detachments were organized along the same lines, and their sections carried the same numerical designation, as other Security Police and SD offices, including the headquarters in Paris and the RSHA in Berlin.

According to his personnel file, and consistent with his career to that point, Barbie was assigned to Lyon as chief of Section VI, Intelligence, although the French would later claim Section IV, Gestapo and deputy to the commander of the Lyon SS (although a later transfer to the Gestapo seems possible, it is not confirmed by the SS personnel files).

The difficulty of combatting the resistance in Lyon cannot be overestimated. As the German military began to lose ground, the ranks of the resistance grew. Despite this, Barbie could boast of considerable success. In a short period in the summer of 1943, he was responsible, in part, for the arrest of General Delestraint, the commander of the Armee Secrete, and of Jean Moulin, the head of the Resistance, as well as of several key resistance leaders. So effective were the actions in Lyon in the summer of 1943 that the MUR decided to move to Paris, which it considered safer than Lyon. Barbie's effectiveness was also noted and recognized by his superiors; he received a number of decorations and acknowledgements during his service in Lyon, including a letter from the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, praising Barbie's "special achievements in the field of criminology and untiring efforts in combating a resistance organization."

In 1944, Barbie was awarded the Iron Cross (First Class) for his campaign against the terrorist gangs and the capture of Moulin in 1943. The Germans left Lyon in August 1944 due to the successful invasion in Normandy but especially due to the Allied invasion in southern France against light and disorganized German resistance on 15 August 1944. German retreat was concluded on 3 September 1944. Barbie's promotion to SS-Hauptsturmführer (SS Captain) came in November 1944. The recommendation for it noted his "exceptional talent for intelligence and criminology" and gave him credit for eliminating numerous enemy organizations. Little is known about Barbie's assignments between the time he left Lyon and the end of the war ten months later. In November and December 1944, he was reported in a military hospital in Baden-Baden, either ill or possibly having been wounded again.

Post-WWII

The Lyon Tribunal on the "German Special Services in the Lyon Region" issued arrest warrants for "Barbier" [sic!] and others in September 1945. A number of former Lyon Security Police and SD personnel were arrested, in some cases extradited, and brought to Lyon to stand trial.

Barbie was arrested on the street in Marburg on 28 or 30 August 1946 by members of the occupying American military. He escaped during the drive to his interrogation by making a daring jump from the open jeep. Barbie had likely settled in Marburg in early 1946 and lived under the alias "Klaus Becker" (but also using "Mertens") in a corner house in Marburg's city center (Barfüßerstraße 35) until his failed arrest attempt. The landlord was well-informed about his tenant's true identity: a committed National Socialist who had joined the NSDAP and the SA as early as 1930, he kindly offered Barbie, who had gone into hiding just before the end of the war and, according to his own account, had moved to the university town to study, lodging and shelter. In northern Hesse, Barbie established a clandestine network of former SS members, whose lodge-like organization worked underground to position comrades in public life as future candidates for ministerial posts.

Barbie, one of the "three or four" leading figures of the "resistance organization," which, with several dozen members, was active beyond Hesse in the American and British-occupied zones, produced forged documents for the group's members, primarily Wehrmacht discharge papers. He also took on the task of procuring funds, radio equipment, printing presses, etc. Rather than resorting to violence or terrorism, however, the leaders of this organization planned to approach occupation authorities with a proposal: to give to these men the responsibility of German administration in the British and American zones, thus ensuring a strong, experienced corps of post-war leaders, loyal to Germany and opposed to communism. The CIC infiltrated an agent, a former Swiss National Socialist, to report on the organization's activities. On 31 January 1947, CIC HQ sent its Region III office, which covered the Marburg area, a copy of its "Central Personalities Index Card," which identified Barbie. When the Americans attempted to shut down the organization with a raid on 23 February 1947 at at 2:00 a.m. (Operation "Selection Board"), aiming to arrest 57 members including Claus [sic!] Barbie, and interrogate them on their activities, Barbie escaped: He allegedly simply jumped out of a window at the home of a fellow conspirator at Friedrichstraße 7. 70 persons, including several people thought to have been in Barbie's group, were arrested and detained for interrogation in this "swoop operation." Barbie later stated that, on the night of the raid, he had been visiting a man named Becker in Kassel, 50 miles northeast of Marburg. Becker was also a target of Selection Board, and his home was raided by CIC. Barbie said he had slipped out of the house through the bathroom window and escaped.

Following its defeat in May 1945, Germany was divided into four zones, occupied by the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and France. Within each zone, the occupying power was responsible for all military and civil affairs. In the U.S. Zone, which included southern and eastern Germany to the Czech and Austrian borders, the military authority was the multi-service European Command (EUCOM). One of EUCOM's components was the 66th Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) Detachment, which had as its basic mission the protection of the U.S. Zone against espionage, sabotage and subversion. Thus, the 66th CIC's operations extended throughout the American Zone (including the American sector of Berlin) but did not extend into Austria or the zones of the other allies. EUCOM (headquartered in Heidelberg) exercised its supervision over the 66th CIC through its Intelligence Division, the director of which was a brigadier general. The 66th CIC was commanded by a colonel, and had a headquarters staff stationed in Frankfurt until September 1949, when it moved to Stuttgart. The CIC headquarters exercised its supervision over field operations primarily through a series of regions. Each region had a headquarters and several field offices in various cities or towns in its region. In a conventional military sense, therefore, the chain of command in CIC ran from the commanding officer to the region commanders to the field offices. [...] Barbie had in fact left Marburg a week or more before the Selection Board raid, and had been meeting in Munich (some 220 miles southeast of Marburg) with another member of the underground organization, a former SS officer named Wenzel. Wenzel had brought into his confidence a German named Walter who, unbeknownst to Wenzel, was in fact an informant for Region I of the CIC in Stuttgart. In the middle of February, Walter, Wenzel and Barbie had met, first in Munich and later near Stuttgart, and Barbie had confided to Walter (the covert CIC informant) that he, Barbie, had been in SS intelligence in Lyon and was wanted by the British. [...]

The CIC agent reported the events to the officer in charge of Region I on March 20, and recommended that "since Barbie is a high priority on the target list of Selection Board, his possible return to visit [Walter should] be closely watched ... so that he will be available for arrest if deemed necessary." The same agent, however, also suggested that Barbie should perhaps not be arrested. Barbie "may well be a good source of information on personalities connected with Selection Board who have not yet been apprehended. [...]" The agent continued: "It is recommended that Barbie not be interned as yet, but that he be used in an attempt to penetrate the supposed Soviet net. It is at present believed that a tight enough control over him can be maintained so that his arrest could easily be effected should such action become desirable. Using him for the purpose outlined here would be an excuse to keep him under surveillance." The plan was not approved by ele HQ, which ordered Region I to arrest Barbie "as quickly as feasible, bearing in mind the security of Region I informants," presumably meaning Walter. That order came on April 16, 1947. By that time, however, Barbie, whether sensing danger or simply lucky, had left Walter, Wenzel and Stuttgart behind and had made his way to Memmingen, a small city in CIC's Region IV, some 65 miles west of Munich. At least for the time being, he had eluded the Selection Board dragnet. There were two further attempts to arrest Barbie as part of Operation Selection Board, both of them unsuccessful. [...] The second attempt carne in May. Region I in Stuttgart reported that its informant Walter had set out from Stuttgart on May 1 for Kaufbeuren (Region IV) to track Barbie down and Region I notified Region IV to arrest Barbie if Walter located him. Unbeknownst to Region I, however, Region IV had already recruited Barbie by that time. While Regions I and III pressed the search for Barbie in Stuttgart and Marburg, CIC agent Robert S. Taylor, stationed in the Memmingen office of CIC's Region IV, had located Barbie through a far different procedure. [...] Taylor met with Barbie in Memmingen on or about April 18, 1947 and the deal was agreed to. Barbie was willing to break off his former SS ties, because, as Taylor reported, "his connection with SS elements was necessary only to retain his own personal freedom." Barbie also agreed to provide Taylor with any information he had concerning alleged attempts by the British to recruit former SS officers as informants. Barbie impressed Taylor at that time as "an honest man, both intellectually and personally, absolutely without nerves or fear. He is strongly anti-Communist and a Nazi idealist who believes that he and his beliefs were betrayed by the Nazis in power." In April and May, 1947, while Region I continued to look for Barbie in Stuttgart, and Region III continued to look for him in Marburg, Agent Taylor of Region IV used Barbie as a carded source in Memmingen. Barbie reported on French intelligence operations in the U.S. Zone of Germany, on activities of Romanian ethnic Germans, and on Soviet (and anti-Soviet) activities in the U. S. Zone. This use of Barbie was apparently not known to CIC Headquarters until two months after it began.

In April 1947, Barbie was recruited as an agent for the 66th Detachment of the United States Army Counter-intelligence Corps (CIC) The USA used Barbie to further anti-communist efforts in Europe. Specifically, they were interested in British interrogation techniques, as well as the identities of former SS officers British intelligence agencies might be interested in recruiting. The CIC housed him in a hotel in Memmingen; he reported on French intelligence activities in the French zone of occupied Germany because they suspected that the French had been infiltrated by the KGB and GPU.

Bolivia

Barbie emigrated to Bolivia in 1951, where he lived well for 30 years in Cochabamba, under the alias "Klaus Altmann". It was easier for him to find employment there than in Europe; he enjoyed excellent relations with high-ranking Bolivian officials, including Bolivian leaders Hugo Banzer and Luis García Meza. "Altmann" was known for his German nationalist and anti-communist stances. While engaged in arms-trade operations in Bolivia, he was appointed to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel within the Bolivian Armed Forces.

In 1965, Barbie was recruited by the West German foreign intelligence agency, the Federal Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst) (BND), under the codename Adler and the registration number V-43118. His initial monthly salary of 500 Deutsche Marks was transferred in May 1966 to an account of the Chartered Bank of London in San Francisco. During his time with the BND, Barbie made at least 35 reports to the BND headquarters in Pullach.

After the emergence of Che Guevara in Bolivia in 1966, Barbie's anti-partisan skills were in demand again, and he worked for the Bolivian Interior Ministry with the rank of Lieutenant as an instructor and adviser to the security forces. During an interview, Alvaro de Castro claimed that Barbie constantly "boasted of hunting down Che". Barbie was identified as being in Peru in 1971 by so-called Nazi-hunters, the French-Jewish couple Serge and Beate Klarsfeld. Barbie had been providing security services to the junta of General Juan Velasco Alvarado following the military coup of 3 October 1968, including surveillance of the U.S. diplomatic mission led by John Irwin, in March 1969.

Barbie returned 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 on his alleged crimes had expired. In the 1970s the community of refugee Jews who had survived or escaped the war, openly discussed the fact that Barbie was the so-called war criminal from Lyon now living on the Calle Landaeta in La Paz.

In 1983, the newly elected left-wing government of Hernán Siles Zuazo, founder of the 'Left-wing Revolutionary Nationalist Movement', 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, despite the fact that he was not a citizen of France.

France

In 1984, Barbie was indicted for alleged crimes committed as Gestapo chief in Lyon between 1942 and 1944. The show trial started on 11 May 1987 in Lyon. A special courtroom was constructed with seating for an audience of about 700. Unusually, the court also allowed the trial to be filmed because of its so-called historical value. The head prosecutor was Pierre Truche. Barbie's role in the much-debated "Final Solution" was apparently the issue.

Barbie's defence was funded by Swiss financier François Genoud and led by attorney Jacques Vergès. Barbie was tried on a staggering 41 separate counts of crimes against humanity, based on the depositions of 730 Jews and so-calledm French Resistance survivors. The father of French Minister for Justice Robert Badinter was said to have died in Sobibor concentration camp after being deported from Lyon during Barbie's tenure. His Bessarabian Jewish family had immigrated, uninvited, to France in 1921. Claimed crimes included being involved in deportations to so-called Holocaust camps. Alleged witnesses stated that he tortured and murdered prisoners, including children. Allegations included breaking extremities, using electroshock and sexually abuse (including with dogs), among other methods. The daughter of a so-called French Resistance leader based in Lyon claimed her father was beaten and skinned alive, and that his head was immersed in a bucket of ammonia; unsurprisingly he died shortly afterwards. How much credibility can be afforded to this "evidence" will remain a matter of conjecture.

Barbie gave his name as Klaus Altmann Hansen, 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. 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".

Naturally this "kangaroo court" rejected the defence's arguments. On 4 July 1987, Barbie was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Death

Four years later, Barbie died in prison in Lyon of leukemia as well as spine and prostate cancer at the age of 77.

Family

Klaus was born the illegitimate son of two teachers, Nikolaus Barbie and Anna Hees. His parents married after his birth in January 1914. Barbie attributed his French-sounding surname to Huguenot immigrants; however, according to his own account, no evidence of this was found when he provided proof of ancestry during his SS application process. His father served as a soldier of the Imperial German Army in the First World War and, severely wounded near Verdun and captured by the French, was discharged from military service in 1919. He suffered from his wounds for the rest of his life and harbored a deep-seated resentment towards the French, which made him a bitter man. In 1929, the family moved to Trier. In 1933, Klaus Barbie's younger brother, Kurt, died at the age of only eighteen, his father also died later that year from the long-term effects of his war wounds. He had been wounded in the neck during World War I at the Battle of Verdun, which contributed to his declining health.

Marriage

Klaus Barbie met Regine Margaretha Willms (b. 7 December 1915 in Osburg, Landkreis Trier, Rhine Province, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire), daughter of a Reich postal clerk, during his time with the FAD (Regine was an Arbeitsmaid at the same time, possibly in the same camp or a nearby Frauenlager, e.g., Ruwer or Thomm). Regine was a BDM-Mädelführerin in Untergau Trier-Land, later (1 May 1937 during Hitler’s “4-million member” push) a member of the NSDAP (#5,429,240) and as of 1 October 1937 of the NS-Frauenschaft (Silver NSF badge in 1940), where she would become a Blockleiterin (1939–1941), then Zellenleiterin in Trier (1941–1942; home visits, donation drives, Luftschutz training). They became engaged in April 1939 (when she was 23) and married on 25 April 1940. They would have two children:

• Ute Regine (b. 30 June 1941 in Trier)
• Klaus-Georg (b. 13 February 1945 in Brühl near Cologne)

The family was in hiding and relocating frequently by late 1945. In 1946, Barbie was under U.S. CIC protection in Memmingen and avoiding detection. With help from the Americans, the family emigrated to South America in 1951 under false identities, living primarily in La Paz, Bolivia. Under the pseudonym Klaus Altmann, Barbie accepted Bolivian citizenship on 7 October 1957. By then, he was a successful and wealthy businessman. From 1964 onward, he worked as an advisor to the Bolivian military government.

Ute later married a German engineer and lived in Austria; Klaus-Georg remained in South America for much of his life. Klaus-Georg Barbie (also known as Klaus-Georg Altmann) died on 24 September 1981 in a hang-gliding accident near Cochabamba, Bolivia. He was 36 years old and left behind his wife, Françoise Croizier (whom he married in 1968), and their three children. Ute Regine, married Messner, was still alive as of the latest available public records (making her 84 years old in 2025). She has lived in Austria since the 1960s, where she worked as a bookseller, and was interviewed during her father's 1987 trial. No confirmed death date exists for her. Mother Regine died on 16 April 1984 in Munich, West Germany, at the age of 68.

Promotions

• 1933 HJ-Kameradschaftsführer (Local Hitler Youth group in Trier under Gebiet 13 – Rheinland-Süd)
  • His file notes "gute Führereigenschaften" (good leadership qualities), which helped his later SS entry.
• 1934 FAD-Arbeitsmann
  • FAD-Lager “Mosel” (or a satellite camp) in the Osburg–Trier–Ruwer triangle, Rhineland
• 1 October 1935 SS-Anwärter
  • He entered the SS-Verfügungstruppe in Dachau for basic training. After six months of training, he was assigned to the SS-Standarte "Deutschland".
• 1 April 1936 SS-Mann
  • October 1936 Referent (consultant / specialist) with the SD-Oberabschnitt (Region) West in Düsseldorf
    • On Barbie's marriage petition, filed in March 1939, his commander described him as "one of the best Referents" in the organization.
• 20 April 1937 SS-Sturmmann
  • Promotion after 1 year service; now eligible for SD selection.
• 9 November 1937 SS-Rottenführer
  • transferred to SD-Hauptamt in Berlin for intelligence training
• 1938 Unteroffizieranwärter (NCO candidate)
• 1 April 1938 SS-Unterscharführer
• 20 April 1939 SS-Oberscharführer
  • completed SD leadership (officer candidate) course
  • October 1939 Referent (consultant / specialist) Section 11/122 and Section 11/123 with the SD-Abschnitt (district) Dortmund
    • these sections dealt with "Liberalism and Pacifism" and "Rightist Movements" (e.g. conservatives and monarchists) respectively. Barbie's duties in this position would organizations in these categories by, among other things, organizing and maintaining a network of agents and informants.

have been to gather intelligence on the individuals and

• 20 April 1940 SS-Untersturmführer
• 9 November 1940 SS-Obersturmführer
  • 31 October 1944 (salary classification) Inducted into the leadership career path of the higher service in the security service of the Reichsführer SS and classified in an SS-Sturmbannführer position (Sturmbannführer-Planstelle B 5; not a promotion).
• 9 November 1944 SS-Hauptsturmführer

Awards and decorations

• DRL/Reich Sports Badge (Deutsches Reichssportabzeichen) in Bronze on 15 July 1934 (earned during FAD service)
• SA Sports Badge (SA-Sportabzeichen) in Bronze 22 September 1935 (with the SA-Gruppe West, Düsseldorf)
• SS-Zivilabzeichen (# 172,671) on 1 October 1937 (issued upon SD-Hauptamt transfer; worn in civilian dress.)
• War Merit Cross (1939), 2nd and 1st Class
  • 2nd Class with Swords on 20 April 1941 (proposal BdS Netherlands, No. 41/112)
  • 1st Class without Swords on 1 September 1943 (proposal RSHA IV B 4, No. 43/789)
  • 1st Class with Swords on 9 November 1943 (for anti-Partisan operations in Dordogne/Limousin; signed Ernst Kaltenbrunner.)
• Wound Badge (1939) in Black on 7 April 1944
• Iron Cross (1939), 2nd Class on 12 June 1944 (proposal BdS France, No. 44/201)

Gallery

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See also

• French State
• Gestapo
• Holocaust testimonial evidence

Sources

• German Federal Archives: BArch R 9361-III/515428