Klaus Barbie
| Klaus Barbie | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Birth name | Nikolaus Barbie |
| Born |
25 October 1913 Bad Godesberg, Germany |
| Died | 23 September 1991 (aged 77) Lyon, France (incarcerated) |
| Allegiance |
 Nazi Germany USA Bolivia
|
| Service/branch |
 Gestapo
|
| Years of service | 1933–1945 |
| Rank |
 SS-Hauptsturmführer
|
| Service number | |
| Unit | Sicherheitsdienst |
| Battles/wars | Ñancahuazú Guerrilla |
| Awards | Iron Cross First Class |
Nikolaus "Klaus" Barbie (25 October 1913 – 23 September 1991) was an SS-Hauptsturmführer (rank equivalent to army captain) and Gestapo member. He was known as the "Butcher of Lyon" for having personally tortured French prisoners of the Gestapo while stationed in Lyon, France. After the war, United States intelligence services employed him for their anti-Marxist efforts, and also helped him escape to South America. The Bundesnachrichtendienst (the West German intelligence agency) later recruited him, and he may also have helped the CIA capture Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara in 1967. Barbie is suspected of having had a hand in the Bolivian coup d'état orchestrated by Luis García Meza Tejada in 1980. After the fall of the dictatorship, Barbie no longer had the protection of the Bolivian government, and in 1983 was extradited to France, where he was convicted of crimes against humanity. He died of cancer in prison on 23 September 1991.
Nikolaus "Klaus" Barbie was born on 25 October 1913 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. His patrilineal ancestors were likely French Roman Catholics named Barbier who had left France at the time of the French Revolution. In 1914, his father, also named Nikolaus, was conscripted to fight in the First World War. He returned an angry, bitter man. Wounded in the neck at Verdun and captured by the French, whom he hated, he never recovered his health. He became an alcoholic who abused his children. Until 1923, when he was 10, Klaus Barbie attended the local school where his father taught. Afterward, he attended a boarding school in Trier, and was relieved to be away from his abusive father. In 1925, the entire Barbie family moved to Trier.
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