Editing Klaus Barbie

{{Short description|Nazi German Gestapo leader (1913–1991)}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox criminal
| name              = Nikolaus Barbie
| image             = Klaus Barbie in uniform.jpg
| image_size        = 
| caption           = Barbie as an [[SS]]-''[[Obersturmführer]]''
| birth_name        = Nikolaus Barbie
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|df=yes|1913|10|25}}
| birth_place       = [[Bad Godesberg|Godesberg]], German Empire
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1991|9|25|1913|10|25}}
| death_place       = [[Lyon]], France
| other_names       = "Butcher of Lyon"<br>Klaus Altmann
| trial             = 
| known_for         = 
| conviction_penalty = Death; commuted to [[life imprisonment]]
| party             = [[Nazi Party]] 
| module            = {{Infobox military person|embed=yes
| embed_title   = Career
| allegiance    = {{tree list}}
* [[Nazi Germany]]
**''[[Schutzstaffel]]''<ref name=hrp>{{Cite web|title=Klaus Barbie The Butcher of Lyon|url=http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/barbie.html|website=Holocaust Research Project|access-date=29 September 2015}}</ref>
* [[United States]]
* [[West Germany]]
* [[Bolivia]]{{tree list/end}}
| branch        = {{plainlist|
* [[Gestapo]]
* [[Counterintelligence Corps]]
* [[Federal Intelligence Service]]
}}
| serviceyears  = 1935–1945
| rank          = SS-{{lang|de|[[Hauptsturmführer]]}}
| unit          = {{lang|de|[[Sicherheitsdienst]]}} (SD)
| spouse = {{marriage|Regina Margaretta Willms|April 1939}}
| children = 2
| battles       =
| awards        = 
}}
| conviction        = [[Crimes against humanity]]
| conviction_status = Deceased
}}

'''Nikolaus Barbie''' (25 October 1913 – 25 September 1991) was a German officer of the ''[[Schutzstaffel]]'' and ''[[Sicherheitsdienst]]'' who worked in [[Vichy France]] during [[World War II]]. He became known as the "'''Butcher of Lyon'''" for having personally tortured prisoners—primarily [[Jews]] and members of the [[French Resistance]]—as the head of the [[Gestapo]] in [[Lyon]]. After the war, [[United States Intelligence Community|United States intelligence services]] employed him for his [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] efforts and aided his escape to Bolivia, where he advised [[History of Bolivia (1964–1982)|the dictatorial regime]] on how to repress opposition through torture. In 1983, the United States apologised to France for the U.S. [[Counterintelligence Corps]] helping him escape to Bolivia,{{sfn|Bönisch|Wiegrefe|2011}} aiding Barbie's escape from an outstanding arrest warrant.<ref name="criminaltospy"/>

In 1972, it was discovered he was in Bolivia. While in Bolivia, the [[Bundesnachrichtendienst|West German Intelligence Service]] recruited him. Barbie is suspected of having had a role in the Bolivian coup d'état orchestrated by [[Luis García Meza]] in 1980. After the fall of the dictatorship, Barbie lost the protection of the government in [[La Paz]]. In 1983, he was arrested and extradited to France, where he was convicted of [[crimes against humanity]] and sentenced to life in prison. Although he had been sentenced to death [[Trial in absentia|in absentia]] twice earlier, in 1947 and 1954, [[capital punishment]] had been abolished in France in 1981. Barbie died of cancer in 1991, at age 77, in his Lyon prison.

==Early life and education==
Nikolaus "Klaus" Barbie was born on 25 October 1913 in [[Bad Godesberg|Godesberg]],  which is today part of [[Bonn]]. The Barbie family came from [[Merzig]], in the [[Saarland|Saar]] near the [[France–Germany border|border]] with [[French Third Republic|France]]. In 1914, his father, also named Nikolaus, was conscripted to fight in the [[First World War]]. He was wounded in the neck at [[Battle of Verdun|Verdun]] and captured by the French, and he never recovered his health. Until 1923, when he was 10, Klaus Barbie attended the local school where his father taught. Afterwards, he attended a boarding school in [[Trier]], and was relieved to be away from his father, who [[Child abuse|abused]] him. In 1925, the entire Barbie family moved to Trier.<ref name=hrp/>

In June 1933, Barbie's younger brother Kurt died, at the age of 18, of a chronic illness. Later that year, their father also died. The death of his father derailed plans for the 20-year-old Barbie to study [[theology]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Nikolaus 'Klaus' Barbie: The Butcher of Lyon|url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nikolaus-klaus-barbie-the-butcher-of-lyon|access-date=28 April 2021|website=US Holocaust Memorial Museum: Holocaust Encyclopedia|language=en}}</ref> While unemployed, Barbie was conscripted into the [[Reich Labour Service]]. On 26 September 1935, aged 22, he joined the [[Schutzstaffel]] (SS) as member 272,284, and began working in the ''[[Sicherheitsdienst]]'' (SD), the SS security service, which acted as the [[Intelligence (information gathering)|intelligence]]-gathering arm of the [[Nazi Party]]. On 1 May 1937, he became member 4,583,085 of the Nazi Party.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Beattie|first=John|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lP1h8Cmi7sUC|title=The Life and Career of Klaus Barbie: An Eyewitness Record|date=1984|publisher=Methuen|isbn=978-0-413-54170-3|pages=5–7|language=en}}</ref>

==Second World War==
After the German [[Battle of the Netherlands|conquest]] and [[History of the Netherlands (1939–1945)|occupation]] of the Netherlands, Barbie was assigned to Amsterdam. He had been pre-assigned to [[Adolf Eichmann]]'s Amt (Department) IV/B-4. This department was responsible for the identification, roundup, and deportation of Dutch Communists, Jews and [[Freemasons]]. On 11 October 1940, Barbie arrested {{ill|Hermannus van Tongeren|nl|Hermannus van Tongeren sr.|lt=Hermannus van Tongeren}}, [[Grand Master (Masonic)|Grand Master]] of the [[Grand Orient of the Netherlands]]. In March 1941, van Tongeren was transported to [[Sachsenhausen concentration camp]] where, in freezing conditions, he died two weeks later. On 1 April, Barbie summoned van Tongeren's daughter, Charlotte, to SD headquarters and informed her that her father had died of an infection in both ears and had been cremated.<ref>{{cite book |first=Robert |last=Cooper |edition=illustrated |publisher=Lewis Masonic |title=The Red Triangle |year=2011 |pages=95–97 |isbn=978-0853183327}}</ref>

In 1942, he was sent to [[Dijon]], in the [[Zone occupée|Occupied Zone]] of France. In November of the same year, at the age of 29, he was assigned to Lyon as the head of the local [[Gestapo]]. He established his headquarters at the [[Hôtel Terminus]] in Lyon, where he personally tortured adult and child prisoners.<ref name="criminaltospy">{{cite news|last1=Bönisch|first1=Georg|title=From Nazi to criminal to post-war spy: German intelligence hired Klaus Barbie as agent|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/from-nazi-criminal-to-postwar-spy-german-intelligence-hired-klaus-barbie-as-agent-a-740393.html|newspaper=Der Spiegel|date=20 January 2011|last2=Wiegrefe|first2=Klaus}}</ref><ref name=hotelterminus>{{cite AV media|year=1988|title=Hôtel Terminus|medium=Motion picture}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/barbie.html |title=Klaus Barbie: women testify of torture at his hands|newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer|via=Literature of the Holocaust at Penn State University|date=23 March 1987|access-date=25 July 2023}}</ref> He became known as the "Butcher of Lyon".<ref>{{Cite magazine|title=Ich bin gekommen, um zu töten|language=de|url=http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/zeitgeschichte/0,1518,489560,00.html|magazine=Der Spiegel|date=2 July 2007|access-date=22 January 2011|first=Jörg |last=Diehl}}</ref> The daughter of a [[French Resistance]] leader based in Lyon said her father was beaten and his skin torn, and that his head was immersed in buckets of ammonia and cold water; he could not sit or stand and died three days later from burns to his skin.<ref name=hotelterminus/> Other tortures included training German shepherd dogs to bite and using them to [[rape]] naked women.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chalmers |first=Beverley |date=2015 |title=Jewish women's sexual behaviour and sexualized abuse during the Nazi era |url=https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/full/10.3138/cjhs.242-A10 |journal=The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=184–196 |doi=10.3138/cjhs.242-A10 |s2cid=145155868 |via=University of Toronto Press}}</ref>

It has been estimated <ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/klaus-barbie-izieu-childrens-home | title=Targeting the Most Vulnerable: Klaus Barbie and the Izieu Children's Home | date=29 May 2019 }}</ref> that Barbie was directly responsible for the deportation of up to 14,000 Jews and resistance fighters,<ref>{{Cite news|title=3 July 1987: Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie gets life|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/3/newsid_2492000/2492285.stm|work=BBC On This Day<!--This is the date given, but it's not actually written contemporaneously, so not appropriate to use it here: |date=3 July 1987-->|access-date=1 May 2009}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|title=Klaus Barbie ausgeliefert|language=de|url=https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/kalenderblatt-4-2-1983-a-946578.html|magazine=Der Spiegel|date=4 February 2008|access-date=25 July 2023}}</ref> personally participating in roundups such as the [[Rue Sainte-Catherine Roundup]] which saw 84 people arrested in a single day. He arrested [[Jean Moulin]], a high-ranking member of the [[French Resistance]] and his most prominent captive. In 1943, he was awarded the [[Iron Cross#Iron Cross|Iron Cross (First Class)]] by [[Adolf Hitler]] for his campaign against the French Resistance and the capture of Moulin.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bower |first=Tom |title=Klaus Barbie: The Butcher of Lyons |publisher=Open Road Media |year=2017 |isbn=9781504043250 |language=en}}</ref>

In April 1944, Barbie ordered the [[deportation]] to [[Auschwitz]] of a group of 44 Jewish children from an orphanage at [[Izieu]].<!--This was just one of the charges brought up at his trial--><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/childrens-homes/izieu/index.asp |title=Maison d'Izieu |publisher=[[Yad Vashem]] |access-date=25 July 2023}}</ref> He then rejoined the [[Sicherheitspolizei|SiPo]]-SD of Lyon in its retreat to [[Bruyères]], where he led an anti-partisan attack in [[Rehaupal]] in September 1944.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/klaus-barbie-butcher-lyon.html|title=The Notorious Klaus Barbie: The Butcher Of Lyon|publisher=War History Online|date=20 September 2017|access-date=23 February 2025}}</ref>

==US intelligence work in post-War Europe==
In 1947, Barbie was recruited as an agent for the 66th Detachment of the [[United States Army|US Army]] [[Counterintelligence Corps]] (CIC) along with a Serbian agent of the [[Belgrade]] special police and SD, Radislav Grujičić.<ref name="Wolfe">{{cite web|last=Wolfe|first=Robert|title=Analysis of the Investigative Records Repository file of Klaus Barbie|url=https://www.archives.gov/iwg/research-papers/barbie-irr-file.html|publisher=Interagency Working Group|date=19 September 2001|access-date=1 May 2009}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Canadian Charged with War Crimes Was Once Hired by Cia, Says Group |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/canadian-charged-with-war-crimes-was-once-hired-by-cia-says-group |access-date=28 October 2022 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |date=20 March 2015 |language=en-US}}</ref> The US used Barbie and other Nazi Party members to further [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] efforts in Europe. Specifically, they were interested in British interrogation techniques which Barbie had experienced firsthand, 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 [[Allied-occupied Germany|French zone of occupied Germany]] because they suspected that the French had been infiltrated by the [[KGB]] and [[State Political Directorate|GPU]].<ref name="CockburnClair1998">{{cite book|last1=Cockburn|first1=Alexander|last2=Clair|first2=Jeffrey St.|title=Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press|url=https://archive.org/details/whiteoutciadrugs00cock|url-access=registration|access-date=17 January 2013|year=1998|publisher=Verso|isbn=9781859841396|pages=[https://archive.org/details/whiteoutciadrugs00cock/page/167 167]–70}}</ref>

The US Department of Justice report to the US Senate in 1983 opens with the summary paragraph:<ref>{{Cite web|title=US Justice Dept report to Senate|url=https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/criminal-hrsp/legacy/2011/02/04/08-02-83barbie-rpt.pdf}}</ref>

<blockquote>As the investigation of Klaus Barbie has shown, 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. As a direct result of that action, Klaus Barbie did not stand trial in France in 1950; he spent 33 years as a free man and a fugitive from justice.</blockquote>

The French discovered that Barbie was in U.S. hands; having sentenced him to death [[Trial in absentia|in absentia]] for [[war crime]]s, they made a plea to [[John J. McCloy]], [[Allied High Commission|US High Commissioner]] for Germany, to hand him over for execution, but McCloy refused.<ref name="CockburnClair1998"/> Instead, the CIC helped him flee to Bolivia assisted by "[[Ratlines (World War II aftermath)|ratlines]]" organised by US intelligence services,<ref name="Terkel">{{Cite book|last=Terkel|first=Studs|author-link=Studs Terkel|title=The Good War|publisher=Ballantine|year=1985|isbn=978-0-345-32568-6|title-link=The Good War}}</ref> as well as by Croatian Roman Catholic clergy, including [[Krunoslav Draganović]]. The CIC asserted that Barbie knew too much about the network of German spies the CIC had planted in various European communist organisations. It was suspicious of communist influence within the Government of France, but their protection of Barbie may have been as much to avoid the embarrassment of having recruited him in the first place.<ref name="Wolfe"/> Other authors have suggested that the anticommunist element of Italian fascism and the protection of the Vatican allowed Klaus Barbie and other Nazis to flee to Bolivia.<ref>{{cite book|first=Paul|last=Theroux|title=The Pillars of Hercules: A Grand Tour of the Mediterranean|publisher=Fawcett Columbine|location=New York|page=207|date=1995|isbn=0449910857}}</ref>

In 1965, Barbie was recruited by the West German foreign intelligence agency ''[[Federal Intelligence Service|Bundesnachrichtendienst]]'' (BND), under the codename {{langnf|de|"Adler"|italic=no|Eagle}} and the registration number V-43118. His initial monthly salary of 500 [[Deutsche Mark]]s 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]].<ref>{{Cite news|title=Vom Nazi-Verbrecher zum BND-Agenten|url=http://einestages.spiegel.de/static/topicalbumbackground/20021/vom_nazi_verbrecher_zum_bnd_agenten.html|work=Der Spiegel|date=19 January 2011|access-date=22 January 2011|language=de}}</ref>

==Bolivia==
Barbie immigrated to Bolivia in 1951,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Klaus Barbie {{!}} Nazi leader|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Klaus-Barbie|access-date=24 January 2021|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> where he lived well for 30 years in [[Cochabamba]], under the alias Klaus Altmann. It was easier and less embarrassing for him to find employment there than in Europe; he enjoyed excellent relations with high-ranking Bolivian officials, including Bolivian dictators [[Hugo Banzer]] and [[Luis García Meza]]. "Altmann" was known for his [[German nationalism|German nationalist]] and [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] stances.<ref>Hammerschmidt, Peter: [http://www.peterhammerschmidt.de/forschungen/publikationen "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. {{in lang|de}}</ref> While engaged in arms-trade operations in Bolivia, he was appointed to the rank of lieutenant colonel within the [[Armed Forces of Bolivia|Bolivian Armed Forces]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/sep/10/bolivia-germany|title=In pursuit of Bolivia's secret Nazi|date=10 September 2008|work=The Guardian|location=London}}</ref>

Barbie collaborated with [[René Barrientos]]'s regime, including teaching the general's private paramilitaries named "Furmont" how torture can best be used. The regime's political repression against leftist groups was helped by Barbie's knowledge about intelligence work, torture and interrogations. In 1972 under General Banzer (with whom Barbie collaborated even more openly), he assisted in illegal arrests, interrogations and murders of opposition and progressive groups. Journalists and activists who wrote or spoke about the regime's crimes against human rights were arrested and many fell victim to so-called "[[Enforced disappearance|disappearances]]", the state's secret murders and abductions of leftists. Barbie actively participated in the regime's oppression of opponents.<ref name="Bild">{{Cite news |url=https://www.bild.de/news/inland/drogen-boss/der-schlaechter-und-drogenbaron-41960328.bild.html |title=Ex-Gestapo-Chef von Lyon: Nazi-Verbrecher Barbie in Drogenhandel verstrickt? |date=27 July 2015 |work=[[Bild]] |access-date=16 January 2020 |language=de }}</ref><ref name="SZ">{{Cite news |url=https://www.sueddeutsche.de/medien/arte-doku-ueber-klaus-barbie-warum-der-schlaechter-von-lyon-unbehelligt-blieb-1.2385463 |title=Doku über Klaus Barbie: Zeit für die ganze Geschichte |last=Winkler |first=Willi |date=10 March 2015 |work=[[Süddeutsche Zeitung]] |access-date=16 January 2020 |language=de }}</ref><ref name="Zeit">{{Cite news |url=https://www.zeit.de/1982/45/den-diktatoren-stets-zu-diensten/seite-2 |title=Der Fall Klaus Barbie: Den Diktatoren stets zu Diensten |last=Strothmann |first=Dietrich |date=5 November 1982 |work=[[Die Zeit]] |access-date=16 January 2020 |issn=0044-2070}}</ref><ref name="Latinamerika.nu">{{Cite web |url=http://www.latinamerika.nu/fordjupning/nazistjakt-i-bolivia |title=Nazistjakt i Bolivia |date=5 December 2008 |website=Latinamerika.nu |access-date=16 January 2020 }}</ref>

Barbie was strongly linked to the neo-Nazi paramilitary member Álvaro de Castro, who was his personally hired bodyguard and the two participated in criminal actions and businesses together. De Castro had connections with powerful drug barons and the illegal drug trade and, together with Barbie (under the name Altmann) and an Austrian company, sold weapons to the drug cartels. When De Castro was arrested he admitted in interviews that he had earlier worked for drug lords in the country. Other sources say Barbie most likely also had connections with these organizations.<ref name="Observer">{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/dec/23/world.secondworldwar |title=Barbie 'boasted of hunting down Che' |last=Smith |first=David |date=23 December 2007 |work=The Observer |access-date=16 January 2020 |issn=0029-7712}}</ref> Initially, he worked for [[Roberto Suárez Gómez]] who eventually introduced him to Colombian traffickers. Barbie met with [[Pablo Escobar]] and several other high ranking members of the [[Medellín Cartel|Medellín cartel]] in the late 1970s, and agreed to arrange for security of Escobar's [[Coca|raw coca]] supply, from its cultivation until it reached processing plants in Colombia. In exchange, Escobar agreed to fund Barbie's anti-communist activities.<ref>{{cite web |title=La increíble historia del "carnicero nazi" que ayudó a Pablo Escobar a forjar su imperio narco |url=https://www.infobae.com/america/colombia/2018/09/30/la-increible-historia-del-carnicero-nazi-que-ayudo-a-pablo-escobar-a-forjar-su-imperio-narco/ |website=Infobae|date=30 September 2018 }}</ref> De Castro continued to correspond with Barbie when Barbie was later under arrest.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/en-espanol/sdhoy-letters-that-nazi-war-criminal-barbie-sent-to-2015jan05-story.html |title=Letters that Nazi war criminal Barbie sent to Bolivia from prison revealed |date=5 January 2015 |work=[[San Diego Tribune]] |access-date=16 January 2020 |language=es-US}}</ref><ref name="Bild" /><ref name="SZ" /><ref name="Zeit" /><ref name="Latinamerika.nu" /><ref name="Observer" /> Their connections also provided intelligence information to U.S. authorities at the U.S. Embassy. A group called "The Fiancés of Death", which included German Nazis and Fascists, had links to some of Barbie's actions in Bolivia. 
Barbie earlier also carried out a large arms purchase of tanks from Austria to the Bolivian army. These were then used in a coup d'état.<ref name="Bild" /><ref name="SZ" /><ref name="Zeit" /><ref name="Observer" />

According to various reports, 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.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011 |title=Interview mit Peter Hammerschmidt zum Thema Klaus Barbie |url=http://www.egoisten.de/pdf/Fragen_Hammerschmidt.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005222739if_/http://www.egoisten.de/pdf/Fragen_Hammerschmidt.pdf |archive-date=5 October 2011 }}</ref> During an interview for the 2007 documentary film ''[[My Enemy's Enemy]]'', journalist Kai Hermann told the film-makers that Barbie constantly "boasted that it was he who devised the strategy for murdering Che Guevara".<ref>{{Cite web |date=23 December 2007 |title=Barbie 'boasted of hunting down Che' |url=http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/dec/23/world.secondworldwar |access-date=15 July 2022 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref>

People who met Barbie during his time in Bolivia have said that he was a firm and fanatical believer in the [[Nazism|Nazi ideology]] and an [[Antisemitism|anti-Semite]]. Barbie and De Castro reportedly talked about the cases and searches for [[Josef Mengele]] and [[Adolf Eichmann]], whom Barbie supported and wanted to assist in remaining on the run.<ref name="Bild" /><ref name="SZ" /><ref name="Zeit" /><ref name="Latinamerika.nu" /><ref name="Observer" />

==Manhunt==
[[File:Klaus Barbie Bolivian secret police.jpg|thumb|275px|Barbie's Bolivian secret police ID card, named as "Klaus Altmann Hansen"]]
Barbie was identified as being in [[Peru]] in 1971 by [[Serge Klarsfeld|Serge]] and [[Beate Klarsfeld]] ([[Nazi hunter]]s from France), who came across a secret document that revealed his alias. Barbie was living at Malecon 200, Chaclacayo (11°57'26.3"S 76°43'45.2"W) a property owned by SS-''[[Sturmbannführer]]'' [[Friedrich Schwend]]. On 19 January 1972, this information was published in the French newspaper ''[[l'Aurore (1944 newspaper)|L'Aurore]]'', along with a photograph of Altmann which the Klarsfelds obtained from a German expatriate living in Lima, Peru.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Murphy |first=Brendan |title=The Butcher of Lyon: the story of infamous Nazi Klaus Barbie |date=1983 |publisher=Empire Books |isbn=0-88015-013-0 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=280 |oclc=10173773}}</ref> In Peru, Barbie provided security services to the [[Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces of Peru|junta]] of General [[Juan Velasco Alvarado]] following the [[1968 Peruvian coup d'état|military coup of 3 October 1968]], including surveillance of the [[Embassy of the United States, Lima|U.S. diplomatic mission]] led by John Irwin in March 1969.<ref>Mark B. Feldman, Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection p. 59, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, https://adst.org/OH%20TOCs/Feldman.Mark.pdf</ref>

Led by [[Beate Klarsfeld]], French journalist [[Ladislas de Hoyos]] and cameraman Christian van Ryswyck flew to La Paz in January 1972 in order to find and interview 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 Barbie was placed under protection by the Bolivian authorities.<ref>{{cite web |title=TV: Ladislas de Hoyos est mort |url=https://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2011/12/08/97001-20111208FILWWW00753-tv-ladislas-de-hoyos-est-mort.php |website=Le Figaro |date=8 December 2011 |access-date=7 March 2020}}</ref> 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 unmistakably betrayed him. It was in this interview, later broadcast on French TV Channel [[France 2|Antenne 2]], that he was recognized by French resistance member Simone Lagrange, who had been tortured by Klaus Barbie in 1944.<ref>{{cite web |title=Dans les coulisses de l'interview qui fit tomber Klaus Barbie |url=https://www.telerama.fr/television/dans-les-coulisses-de-l-interview-qui-fit-tomber-klaus-barbie,76754.php |website=telerama.fr |date=9 January 2012 |publisher=Télérama |access-date=7 March 2020}}</ref>

The testimony of Italian insurgent [[Stefano Delle Chiaie]] before the Italian Parliamentary Commission on Terrorism suggests that Barbie took part in the [[Roberto Suárez Gómez]] supported 1980 coup d'état "[[History of Bolivia (1964–1982)#Geiler interim presidency, 1980 election, and military juntas|cocaine coup]]" of [[Luis García Meza]], when the regime forced its way to power in Bolivia in 1980.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.bolivianexpress.org/blog/posts/the-butcher-of-bolivia | title=The Butcher of Bolivia | work=Bolivian Express Magazine | author=Laetitia Grevers | date=4 November 2012 | access-date=31 March 2016}}</ref>

==Extradition, trial and death==

In February 1983, the newly elected democratic government of [[Hernán Siles Zuazo]] 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.<ref>{{cite web | author-last1= Lisciotto |author-first1= Carmelo |author-last2= Webb |author-first2= Chris | date = 2016 |title=Klaus Barbie, The Butcher of Lyon | work=Holocaust Research Project | url=http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/barbie.html | access-date=31 March 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/02/06/world/ex-gestapo-aide-is-taken-to-france.html|title=Ex-Gestapo Aide Is Taken To France|first=E.J.|last=Dionne Jr.|work=New York Times|date=6 February 1983|access-date=26 November 2024}}</ref>

Shortly after Barbie's extradition, evidence emerged that Barbie had worked for U.S. intelligence in Germany and that U.S. agents may have been instrumental in Barbie's flight to Bolivia to escape prosecution in France. [[Allan Ryan (attorney)|Allan Ryan]], Director of the [[Office of Special Investigations (United States Department of Justice)|Office of Special Investigations]] (OSI) of the U.S. Justice Department, recommended to U.S. Attorney General [[William French Smith]] that the matter be investigated.<ref>{{cite book |title=Quiet Neighbors- Prosecuting Nazi War Criminals In America |last=Ryan |first=Allan A. Jr. |year=1984 |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |location=USA |isbn=0-15-175823-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Martin |first=John| date= Feb 2021 |title=It Takes A Thief |journal=World War II  |volume=35 |issue=5 |pages=38–45 }}</ref> 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."<ref name=RyanReport>{{Cite report |author=Ryan, Allan A. |date=August 1983 |title=Klaus Barbie and the United States Government—A Report to the Attorney General of the United States  | location = Washington, D.C. | publisher=Justice Department, U.S Government|url=https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/criminal-hrsp/legacy/2011/02/04/08-02-83barbie-rpt.pdf |page=1}}</ref>

Ryan felt that the initial decision by the U.S. government to use Barbie during [[Cold War]] 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 [[Counterintelligence Corps|U.S. 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 U.S. authorities and help Barbie escape Europe to Bolivia rather than honour an outstanding French warrant for his arrest.<ref name=RyanReport/>{{rp|p.203}} As a result of Ryan's report and personal recommendation, the U.S. government made a formal apology to France for enabling Barbie to escape French justice for 33 years.<ref>{{cite news|last=United Press International (UPI)|title=US Sends Apology To France On Barbie|newspaper=The Pittsburgh Press|page=A12|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19830816&id=FjkgAAAAIBAJ&pg=4047,246561&hl=en|date=16 August 1983|access-date=27 November 2015}}</ref>

In 1984, Barbie was indicted for crimes committed as [[Gestapo]] chief in Lyon between 1942 and 1944, chief among which was the [[Rue Sainte-Catherine Roundup]]. The [[jury trial]] started on 11 May 1987 in Lyon before the [[Rhône (department)|Rhône]] ''[[Cour d'assises|Cour d'Assises]]''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/28/klaus-barbie-nazi-trial-lyons-1987|date=28 May 1987|title=The trial of Klaus Barbie|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=23 February 2025}}</ref> The head prosecutor was [[Pierre Truche]]. One witness at the trial was [[Michel Thomas]], a Polish [[polyglot]] Jew, who had narrowly escaped arrest by Barbie in Lyon during World War II.<ref>{{cite news |last=Robbins |first=Christopher |date=19 January 2005 |title=Michel Thomas |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/jan/19/guardianobituaries.obituaries |access-date=23 February 2025 |newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref>

Barbie's defence was funded by Swiss pro-Nazi financier [[François Genoud]] and led by attorney [[Jacques Vergès]]. Barbie was tried on 41 separate counts of [[crimes against humanity]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-50828696|title=Val d'Isere: The doctor who hid a Jewish girl - and the resort that wants to forget|date=5 January 2020|newspaper=BBC News|access-date=23 February 2025}}</ref> The father of French [[Ministry of Justice (France)|Minister for Justice]] [[Robert Badinter]] had died in [[Sobibor extermination camp|Sobibor]] after being deported from Lyon during Barbie's tenure.<ref name="Beigbeder2006">{{cite book|author=Beigbeder, Yves|title=Judging War Crimes And Torture: French Justice And International Criminal Tribunals And Commissions (1940–2005)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZtaU8_z2SngC&pg=PA204|access-date=21 May 2012|year=2006|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|isbn=9789004153295|pages=204ff}}</ref>

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".<ref>{{cite journal | author = Eytan, Edwin | date = 27 May 1987 | title = Six Witnesses Identify Barbie, Who Was Ordered Back to Court | journal = JTA Daily News Bulletin | volume = 65 | issue = 99 | page = 3 | url = http://pdfs.jta.org/1987/1987-05-27_099.pdf |access-date=24 May 2024}} New York, NY: [[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]] (JTA).</ref>

[[File:Jacques Vergès et Klaus Barbie lors de son procès. Lyon 1987 (dessin de Calvi).jpg|thumb|Caricature of Vergès and Klaus Barbie during the trial, by Calvi]]

Barbie's defence lawyer, Jacques Vergès, had a reputation for attacking the French political system, particularly in the historic [[French colonial empire]]. 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]] and in [[French Algeria]]. Vergès argued that Barbie's actions were no worse than the supposedly ordinary actions of [[colonialism|colonialists]] worldwide, and that his trial was tantamount to [[selective prosecution]]. Barbie's final statement, spoken in French, was: "I never committed the roundup in Izieu.  I fought the Résistance, which I respect, with toughness but that was war, and the war is over."<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=X10nG2T-uDAC&pg=PA23   |title= Remembering in Vain The Klaus Barbie Trial and Crimes Against Humanity|first= Alain|last= Finkielkraut|year=2010  |page=23|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0231501378}}</ref>

The court rejected the defence's argument, and on 4 July 1987, Barbie was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in prison in Lyon (of [[leukemia]], 
and prostate cancer) four years later, at the age of 77.<ref>{{cite news|last=Saxon|first=Wolfgang|date=26 September 1991|title=Klaus Barbie, 77, Lyons Gestapo Chief|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/26/world/klaus-barbie-77-lyons-gestapo-chief.html|access-date = 24 May 2024}}</ref>

==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.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/03/05/Imprisoned-Nazi-war-criminal-visited-by-daughter/3695415688400/|title=Imprisoned Nazi war criminal visited by daughter|date=5 March 1983|newspaper=UPI|access-date=23 February 2025}}</ref>

In 1983, Françoise Croizier, Klaus Barbie's French daughter-in-law, said in an interview that the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] kidnapped Klaus-Georg in 1946 to make sure that 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 that, 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.<ref>{{citation |title=The CIA kidnapped the young son of Klaus Barbie |date=31 July 1983 |website=UPI |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/07/31/The-CIA-kidnapped-the-young-son-of-Klaus-Barbie/7447428472000/}}</ref>

== In media ==
* The 1988 American documentary film ''[[Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie]]'', directed by the German-French director [[Marcel Ophuls]], details Barbie's life between childhood and the trial near the end of his life.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://catalog.afi.com/Film/58777-HOTEL-TERMINUS-THE-LIFE-AND-TIMES-OF-KLAUS-BARBIE?cxt=filmography|work=[[American Film Institute]]|title=Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie|access-date=January 29, 2019}}</ref>
* The 1989 [[Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine|Carter USM]] single "[[Sheriff Fatman]]" mentions Barbie by name in the verse ‘With more aliases than Klaus Barbie the master butcher of Leigh-on-sea’ which refers to his eponym as the "Butcher of Lyon".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://genius.com/Carter-the-unstoppable-sex-machine-sheriff-fatman-lyrics|title=Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine: Lyrics|publisher=Genius|access-date=23 February 2025}}</ref>
* In the 2001 film ''[[Rat Race (film)|Rat Race]]'', the Pear family visits a museum dedicated to Klaus Barbie, located in the southwest United States, having mistaken it to be a museum dedicated to [[Barbie|the famous doll]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rabin |first=Nathan |date=16 May 2017 |title=Why 2001's ''Rat Race'' Is A Perfect Piece of Escapism for Modern Times |url=https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/why-2001s-rat-race-is-a-perfect-piece-of-escapism-for-modern-times/ |access-date=17 January 2022 |website=Rotten Tomatoes |language=en-US}}</ref> In this context, Barbie is shown to represent a unifying force within [[Fourth Reich]] American [[Neo-Nazism]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Linklater |first1=Magnus|last2=Hilton|first2=Isabel|last3=Ascherson|first3=Neal|year=1984|title=The Nazi Legacy: Klaus Barbie and the International Fascist Connection|publisher=Holt, Rinehart, and Winston|isbn=978-0-03-069303-8|url=https://archive.org/details/nazilegacyklausb00link}}</ref>
* The British–French documentary film ''[[My Enemy's Enemy]]'' ({{langx|fr|Mon Meilleur Ennemi}}) 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]]. It also discusses his French trial for war crimes committed in Lyon, such as the torture of [[Jean Moulin]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Koehler |first=Robert |date=31 August 2007 |title=My Enemy's Enemy |language=en-US |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |url=https://variety.com/2007/film/reviews/my-enemy-s-enemy-1200556819/ |access-date=17 January 2022}}</ref>
* The 2017 [[video game]] ''[[Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands]]'', which is set in a fictionalized version of Bolivia, includes a location named "Klaus Barbie House" containing a collectible document that briefly details Barbie's work during and after World War II, flight to Bolivia, and extradition.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Byam |first1=Georgia |last2=Huston |first2=Gabrielle |title=13 Hidden Things Casual Players Still Haven't Found In Ghost Recon: Wildlands |url=https://www.thegamer.com/ghost-recon-wildlands-secrets-easter-eggs-hidden-locations-find/ |website=TheGamer |language=en |date=14 July 2018}}</ref>
* Barbie is played by [[Marc Rissmann]] in the 2019 movie ''[[A Call to Spy]]'', which is about female Allied spies in WWII.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kennedy |first=Lisa |date=1 October 2020 |title=''A Call to Spy'' Review: Femme-Focused WWII Drama Offers Up Fresh Heroes in Britain's Tradecraft History |language=en-US |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |url=https://variety.com/2020/film/reviews/a-call-to-spy-review-femme-focused-wwii-drama-offers-up-fresh-heroes-in-britains-tradecraft-history-1234788716/ |access-date=17 January 2022}}</ref>
* Barbie is portrayed by [[Matthias Schweighöfer]] in the 2020 film ''[[Resistance (2020 film)|Resistance]]'', which is a free adaptation of the experiences of the French mime [[Marcel Marceau]] during [[World War II]], when he helped to save Jewish children from deportation to [[Nazi Germany]] as a member of the [[French Resistance#Jews|Jewish resistance]]. Barbie is the main antagonist as the group operates within [[Lyon]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Debruge |first=Peter |date=9 March 2020 |title=''Resistance'': Film Review |language=en-US |work=Variety |url=https://variety.com/2020/film/reviews/resistance-review-jesse-eisenberg-1203524868/ |access-date=17 January 2022}}</ref>
* Barbie is portrayed by Fabian Baecker in the 2024 Dutch TV series ''De Joodse Raad'' ("The Jewish Council").<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.moviemeter.nl/series/show/10211/cast|title=Volledige cast & crew van De Joodse Raad|publisher=Movie Meter|access-date=23 February 2025}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Germany}}
* [[Operation Condor]]
* [[Operation Bloodstone]]
* [[Glossary of Nazi Germany]]
* [[List of Nazi Party leaders and officials]]
* [[Alice Vansteenberghe]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book |authorlink= Tom Bower|last=Bower|first=Tom |year=1984 |title=Klaus Barbie: The Butcher of Lyons |url=https://archive.org/details/klausbarbiebutch00bowe |location=New York |publisher=Pantheon Books |isbn=978-0-394-53359-9}}
* {{cite book |authorlink= Uki Goñi |last=Goñi |first=Uki|title=The Real Odessa: How Peron Brought the Nazi War Criminals to Argentina|publisher=[[Granta Books]]|year=2002|isbn=978-1-86207-403-3}} A chapter in this book also follows how top Nazis made their way to Argentina and elsewhere in 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.
* {{cite book |authorlink= Raul Hilberg |last=Hilberg |first=Raul |title=Die Vernichtung der europäischen Juden |language=de|isbn=978-3-88395-431-8|oclc=10125090|publisher=Olle & Wolter|year=1982|edition=110|page=453|chapter=Barbie (SS, Lyon)}} Case No. 77, Fn 908 KsD Lyon IV-B (gez. [[Ostubaf]]. Barbie) an BdS, Paris IV-B, 6 April 1944, RF-1235.
* {{cite book |authorlink1= Magnus Linklater |authorlink2= Isabel Hilton |authorlink3= Neal Ascherson |last1=Linklater |first1=Magnus|last2=Hilton|first2=Isabel|last3=Ascherson|first3=Neal|year=1984|title=The Nazi Legacy: Klaus Barbie and the International Fascist Connection|publisher=Holt, Rinehart, and Winston|isbn=978-0-03-069303-8|url=https://archive.org/details/nazilegacyklausb00link}}
* {{Cite book |last=Ryan |first=Allan A. Jr. |author-link=Allan Ryan (attorney) |date=2 August 1983 |title=Klaus Barbie and the United States Government: A Report to the Attorney General |url=https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/criminal-hrsp/legacy/2011/02/04/08-02-83barbie-rpt.pdf |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=United States Department of Justice and the United States Government Printing Office |access-date=27 November 2014}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{commons category}}
* [http://www.archives-judiciaires.justice.gouv.fr/index.php?rubrique=10774&ssrubrique=10842 French Judicial Archives on Klaus Barbie] {{in lang|fr}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160302055100/https://portal.d-nb.de/opac.htm?query=Woe%3D118653121&method=simpleSearch Klaus Barbie] at the [[German National Library]] {{in lang|de}}
* {{IMDb name|0053597}}
* [[Marcel Ophüls]]'s {{IMDb title|0095341|Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie (1988)}}
* [[Kevin Macdonald (director)|Kevin Macdonald]]'s {{IMDb title|0896952|My Enemy's Enemy (2007)}}
* {{IMDb title|1032854|L'avocat de la terreur}} (English: "Terror's Advocate")

{{Nazis South America|state=collapsed}}
{{Holocaust France}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barbie, Klaus}}
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