History of Europe

Klaus Barbie, the executioner of Lyon


Klaus Barbie is an SS officer of the SD (German Counterintelligence Services) who arrived in France in June 1942. The one who has already stood out in Russia, for his qualities in the fight against insurgency, quickly becomes the head of the Gestapo Lyonnaise (February 1943). Nicknamed "the executioner of Lyon", he is responsible for the torture and assassination of Jean Moulin and many other members of the Resistance, as well as the roundup of the children of Izieu. A refugee in South America after the end of the war, he was identified by Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, extradited to France and then sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity on July 4, 1987.

Klaus Barbie, a zealous Nazi executive

Born in Bad Godesberg, Germany, Klaus Barbie, born in 1913 in Bad Godesberg, Germany is a pure product of the new Nazi regime. He joined the Hitler Youth in 1933, then the SS organization in 1935, before joining the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP) in 1937. Working for the Sicherheitsdienst (SD, "Information Service “), he was attached in 1940 to the security police intervention group (Sipo-SD) and sent to the Netherlands, which Germany had just invaded. In The Hague, he hunts down German political refugees and Jews.

In November 1942, Klaus Barbie was assigned to Lyon and placed at the head of the Gestapo with the mission of " anti-communist, anti-sabotage and anti-Jewish struggle”. . Mercilessly repressing the local resistance, he will be responsible in particular for the death of Jean Moulin and the liquidation of several groups of guerrillas in the Rhône-Alpes region. Other feats of arms of this zealous executioner, the roundup of the children of Izieu and the deportation of many Jews to Auschwitz.

After the war and although officially wanted by the Allied authorities as a war criminal, Barbie would lead a brilliant career. His experience in counter-insurgency techniques and his knowledge of communist networks led him to be employed by the US Army's counterintelligence services. France, which is asking for his extradition, cannot therefore win the case.

From the run to trial

At the beginning of the 1950s, Barbie, in trouble with the German police, left to settle in South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Peru). There he continues to render services to the American secret services, but also to local regimes while carrying out arms trafficking activities. Using a false identity "Klaus Altmann", protected by the Bolivian dictatorship (of which he would be an agent of the secret services), he is nevertheless denounced in the eyes of the world by the Klarsfeld spouses. After many twists and turns, he was finally extradited to France in 1983.

His trial (recorded and then broadcast on television) which will begin 4 years later, despite the inspired defense of his lawyers, including Jacques Vergès, will be an opportunity to shed light on the tragic events of 1943-1944. He refuses to appear at his trial in Lyon, which opens on May 11, 1987. The three major cases retained by the investigation concern the roundup of the General Union of Israelites of France on February 9, 1943, the roundup of the children of 'Izieu on April 6, 1944 and the last convoy of 600 people deported to Auschwitz on August 11, 1944, less than fifteen days before the liberation of the city.

Convicted of crimes against humanity, he will be sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in 1991, taken away by cancer.

To go further

- Klaus Barbie, code name Adler, by Peter Hammerschmidt. The Arenas, 2016.

- The Barbie trial:Lyon - May 11 to July 4, 1987 - 6 DVDs. Arte Editions, 2011.