Klaus Barbie

Klaus Barbie was a German officer who served in the Schutzstaffel (SS) during World War II. He was a member of the Nazi Party and worked for the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), which was the intelligence-gathering arm of the Nazi Party. Barbie is most famous for his actions in France, where he became known as the "Butcher of Lyon." This name came from his role as the head of the Gestapo in the city of Lyon. He was responsible for the arrest, torture, and deportation of many people, including Jews and members of the French Resistance.

During the war, Barbie worked in several different locations. After the German occupation of the Netherlands, he was assigned to Amsterdam. In his role there, he worked for a department responsible for identifying and deporting Dutch Communists, Jews, and Freemasons. In 1942, he moved to the Occupied Zone of France. By November of that year, he was the head of the Gestapo in Lyon. He set up his headquarters at the Hôtel Terminus. In this position, he personally used torture against adult and child prisoners to gain information.

Barbie's actions in Lyon had a massive impact on the local population. He is estimated to have been directly responsible for the deportation of up to 14,000 Jews and resistance fighters. He participated in specific events like the Rue Sainte-Catherine Roundup, where 84 people were arrested in a single day. He also arrested Jean Moulin, a high-ranking leader of the French Resistance. In April 1944, he ordered the deportation of 44 Jewish children from an orphanage at Izieu to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Because of his success in fighting the Resistance, Adolf Hitler awarded him the Iron Cross in 1943.

After World War II ended, Barbie did not face immediate justice. In 1947, he was recruited as an agent for the United States Army Counterintelligence Corps (CIC). The U.S. wanted to use his knowledge of interrogation techniques and his connections to former SS officers. They used him to further anti-communist efforts in Europe. The U.S. government later admitted they helped him escape to Bolivia to avoid an arrest warrant from France. This allowed Barbie to remain a free man and a fugitive for 33 years. In 1983, the United States apologized to France for this action.

Barbie moved to Bolivia in 1951 and lived there for 30 years. To hide his identity, he used the alias Klaus Altmann. During this time, he became a lieutenant colonel in the Bolivian Armed Forces. He worked closely with several dictators, including Hugo Banzer and Luis García Meza. Barbie taught these regimes how to use torture to repress political opposition. He was also linked to the illegal drug trade and worked with various cartels. Some reports suggest he even helped plan a coup d'état in 1980.

While living in Bolivia, Barbie remained active in intelligence and military circles. He was recruited by the West German intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), in 1965. Under the codename V-43118, he made at least 35 reports to the BND headquarters. He was also suspected of having a role in the strategies used against political figures like Che Guevara. His life in South America was built on his expertise in intelligence and his fanatical belief in Nazi ideology. He even helped other Nazi criminals try to stay hidden from the law.

It was not until 1972 that his true identity was discovered. Two Nazi hunters, Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, found documents that revealed his secret name. They published this information in a French newspaper, which helped start a manhunt. After the dictatorship in Bolivia fell, Barbie lost his government protection. He was arrested in 1983 and extradited to France to face trial. He was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison. Although he had been sentenced to death in the past, France had abolished capital punishment by then. Barbie died of cancer in his prison cell in 1991 at the age of 77.