Klaus Barbie

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Klaus Barbie during WWII.

Nikolaus Klaus Barbie (25 October 1913 – 1991) was a German SS officer during the Second World War.

Early life

Nikolaus "Klaus" Barbie was born in Godesberg (later renamed Bad Godesberg), which is today part of Bonn. The Barbie family came from Merzig, in the Saar near the French border. In 1935, he joined the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) (in English: 'Security Service'). During the war, he was stationed in the Netherlands and France, where he was assigned to Lyon as the head of the local Gestapo. 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[1]. In 1943 Barbie was awarded the Iron Cross (First Class) for his campaign against the French Resistance and the capture of Moulin.[2]

Post-War

In 1947, Barbie was recruited as an agent for the 66th Detachment of the United States Army Counter-intelligence Corps (CIC)[3][4] 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. Later, 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.[5]

Bolivia

Barbie emigrated to Bolivia in 1951,[6] 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.[7] While engaged in arms-trade operations in Bolivia, he was appointed to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel within the Bolivian Armed Forces.[8]

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.[9]

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.[10] During an interview, Alvaro de Castro claimed that Barbie constantly "boasted of hunting down Che".[11] 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.[12]

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.[13] 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.[14]

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.[15] 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.[16] 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, 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".[17]

Naturally this "kangaroo court" rejected the defence's arguments. On 4 July 1987, Barbie was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Four years later, he died in prison in Lyon of leukemia and spine and prostate cancer at the age of 77.[18]

See also

Sources

  1. ↑ Werth, Alexander, France 1940-1955, Robert Hale, London, 1957, pps:151-157.
  2. ↑ Bower, Tom (2017). Klaus Barbie: The Butcher of Lyons (in en). Open Road Media. ISBN 9781504043250. 
  3. ↑ Wolfe, Robert (19 September 2001). Analysis of the Investigative Records Repository file of Klaus Barbie. Interagency Working Group.
  4. ↑ Canadian Charged with War Crimes Was Once Hired by Cia, Says Group (en-US) (20 March 2015).
  5. ↑ (1998) Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press. Verso, 167–70. ISBN 9781859841396. 
  6. ↑ Klaus Barbie | Nazi leader (en).
  7. ↑ 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, Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft (ZfG), 59. Jahrgang, 4/2011. METROPOL Verlag. Berlin 2011, S. 333–349. Template:In lang
  8. ↑ "In pursuit of Bolivia's secret Nazi". The Guardian (London). 10 September 2008. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/sep/10/bolivia-germany. 
  9. ↑ "Vom Nazi-Verbrecher zum BND-Agenten" (in de). Der Spiegel. 19 January 2011. http://einestages.spiegel.de/static/topicalbumbackground/20021/vom_nazi_verbrecher_zum_bnd_agenten.html. 
  10. ↑ Interview mit Peter Hammerschmidt zum Thema Klaus Barbie (2011).
  11. ↑ Barbie 'boasted of hunting down Che' (en) (23 December 2007).
  12. ↑ Feldman, Mark B., "Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection" p.59, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, https://adst.org/OH%20TOCs/Feldman.Mark.pdf
  13. ↑ Template:Cite AV media
  14. ↑ November, Joseph (31 January 2001). "The Trial of Klaus Barbie". http://members.aol.com/voyl/barbie/. 
  15. ↑ Finkielkraut, Alain (1992). Remembering in Vain: The Klaus Barbie Trial and Crimes Against Humanity. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-07464-3. 
  16. ↑ Beigbeder, Yves (2006). Judging War Crimes And Torture: French Justice And International Criminal Tribunals And Commissions (1940–2005). Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 204–. ISBN 978-90-04-15329-5. 
  17. ↑ "Six Witnesses Identify Barbie, Who Was Ordered Back to Court". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 27 May 1987. http://www.jta.org/1987/05/27/archive/six-witnesses-identify-barbie-who-was-ordered-back-to-court. 
  18. ↑ Saxon, Wolfgang (26 September 1991). "Klaus Barbie, 77, Lyons Gestapo Chief". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/26/world/klaus-barbie-77-lyons-gestapo-chief.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm. 
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