Klaus Barbi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie French: Hôtel Terminus: Klaus Barbie, sa vie et son temps) is a 1988 documentary film directed by Marcel Ophüls about the life of Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie. The film covers Barbie's relatively innocent childhood, his time with the Gestapo in Lyon (where he apparently excelled at torture), through to the forty years between the end of World War II and his eventual deportation from Bolivia to stand trial for crimes against humanity. The film explores a number of themes, including the nature of evil and the diffusion of responsibility in hierarchical situations.
The film features interviews from both supporters and opponents of Barbie's trial, from journalists to former U.S. Counter Intelligence Corps agents to independent investigators of Nazi war crimes to Barbie's defense attorney. Much of the testimony presented is contradictory: for example, some interviewees allege that Barbie was brought to trial as a figurehead while others allege that he was allowed to go free for forty years as a result of the protection of various governments (including those of the United States and Bolivia), because Barbie knew secret agents and his trial could thus jeopardize various terror operations.




Nonetheless, within the course of the film, Barbie is brought to trial and sentenced to life in prison; near the end of the film, his defense attorney vows to appeal the decision.
The film won the 1988 Academy Award for Documentary Feature[1] as well as the FIPRESCI Award at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival.[2]




See also
Claude Bourdet
Counterintelligence Corps (United States Army)
Elizabeth Holtzman
Guido Vildoso
Izieu
Jacques Vergès
Jean Moulin
John J. McCloy
Paul Paillole
Ratlines (World War II)
Régis Debray
[edit] References
^ "NY Times: Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie". NY Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/23299/Hotel-Terminus-Klaus-Barbie-His-Life-and-Times/details. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
^ "Festival de Cannes: Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie". festival-cannes.com. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/349/year/1988.html. Retrieved 2009-07-29.

Klaus Barbie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Klaus Barbie
Born
October 25, 1913(1913-10-25)Bad Godesberg, Germany
Died
September 25, 1991(1991-09-25) (aged 77)Lyon, France (incarcerated)
Nationality
German
Other names
Butcher of Lyon
Occupation
Hauptsturmführer
Known for
Working as a Nazi Leader in France, torturing resistance members, and for being a drug lord and arms dealer in Bolivia
Political party
National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP)
Nikolaus 'Klaus' Barbie (October 25, 1913 – September 25, 1991) was an SS-Hauptsturmführer (rank approximately equivalent to army captain), Gestapo member and war criminal. He was known as the Butcher of Lyon.
Contents[hide]
1 Early life
2 War crimes
3 CIA and Bolivia
3.1 Che Guevara
4 Trial
5 In popular culture
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links
[edit] Early life
Klaus Barbie was born in Bad Godesberg, today part of Bonn, Germany. The Barbie family came from Merzig, in the Saar. In origin, they were probably a French Catholic family called Barbier that had left France at the time of the French Revolution. His younger brother Kurt, died of chronic illness in June 1933 at the age of eighteen. In 1914, his father Nickolaus Barbie went off to battle. He returned an angry, bitter man. He had been wounded in the neck at Verdun and had been captured by the French, whom he hated. He never recovered from his health, which was later diagnosed as cancer and his son Klaus never forgave. Nickolaus as a school teacher. Until 1923 he went to the school where his father taught. Afterward, he attended a boarding school in Trier. In 1925, his whole family moved to Trier. In 1933, Barbie's father and brother both died. The death of his abusive, alcoholic father derailed plans for young Barbie to study theology or otherwise become an academic, as his peers had expected. His relationship with his son was difficult and brutal, so it was a relief when he went off to Trier to continue his education. During his youth, Klaus was small and quiet. He was passably intelligent without being brilliant. He was reasonably popular without being considered a leader. While unemployed, Barbie was drafted into the Nazi labor service - Reichsarbeitsdienst. His father died four months after his younger son.
In September 1935, he joined the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the special security branch service of the SS that acted as the intelligence-gathering arm of the Nazi Party. He was sent to serve in Amsterdam in the German occupied Netherlands. In 1942, he was sent to Dijon and in November of the same year he was sent to Lyon, where he became the head of the local Gestapo. In April 1939, Barbie became engaged to Regina Margaretta Willms, a twenty-three year old daughter of a postal clerk.
[edit] War crimes
He first set up camp at Hôtel Terminus in Lyon. It was his time as head of the Gestapo of Lyon that earned him the name Butcher of Lyon. Evidence suggests that he personally tortured prisoners, men, women, and children alike, by breaking extremities, sexual abuse using dogs, and electroshocks among other methods.[1]
It is estimated that he was directly responsible for the deaths of up to 14,000 people.[2][3] The most infamous case is the arrest and torture of Jean Moulin, one of the highest-ranking members of the French Resistance. In April 1944, Barbie ordered the deportation to Auschwitz of a group of 44 Jewish children from an orphanage at Izieu. After his surgery in Lyon, Klaus Barbie rejoined the SIPO-SD of Lyon in Bruyeres-in-Vosges, France, where he was also responsible for a massacre in Rehaupal in September 1944.
[edit] CIA and Bolivia
In 1947, Barbie became an agent for the 66th Detachment of the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC).[4] In 1951, he fled to Juan Peron's Argentina with the help of a ratline organized by U.S. intelligence services[5] and the Ustashi Roman Catholic priest Krunoslav Draganović. Asked by Barbie why he was going out of his way to help him escape, Draganovic responded, "We have to maintain a sort of moral reserve on which we can draw in the future."[6] He then emigrated to Bolivia, where he lived under the alias Klaus Altmann. Testimony of Italian insurgent Stefano Delle Chiaie before the Italian Parliamentary Commission on Terrorism suggests that Barbie took part in the "Cocaine Coup" of Luis García Meza Tejada, when the regime forced its way to power in Bolivia in 1980.[7]
In 1965 Klaus Barbie was recruited by the German foreign intelligence agency Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) under the codename "Adler" (Eagle) and the registration number V-43118 due to both his excellent relations to high ranking Bolivian officials and his strongly nationalist and anti-communist stance. His initial monthly salary of 500 Deutsche Mark was transferred in May 1966 to an account of the Chartered Bank of London in San Francisco. During his stint with the BND he is responsible for at least 35 reports that were sent to the BND headquarters in Pullach.[8]
Barbie was also reported to have worked as an officer for Bolivian intelligence and helped plan concentration camps, and formulate torture and repression techniques for anti-government rebels while Bolivia was under a violent dictatorship.[citation needed]
For some time he lived in a bungalow overlooking the Yungas Road.
[edit] Che Guevara
See also: Ñancahuazú Guerrilla
The 2007 documentary My Enemy's Enemy, directed by Oscar-winning British director Kevin Macdonald, raises the possibility that Barbie helped the CIA orchestrate the 1967 capture and execution of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara in Bolivia.[9] In 1966 a disguised Guevara arrived in Bolivia to organise the overthrow of its military dictatorship, and according to the film, the CIA turned to Barbie for his first-hand knowledge of counter-guerrilla warfare.[9]
According to Alvaro de Castro, a longtime confidant of Barbie interviewed for the film:
"He (Barbie) met Major Shelton, the commander of the unit from the US.[10] (Barbie) no doubt gave him advice on how to fight this guerrilla war. He used the expertise gained doing this kind of work in World War Two. They made the most of the fact that he had this experience."[9]
De Castro adds that Barbie "had little respect for Che Guevara", viewing him as "a pitiful adventurer."[9] In the film, journalist Kai Hermann remarks that "He (Barbie) always boasted - though I cannot prove it - that it was he who devised the strategy for murdering Che Guevara."[9]
[edit] Trial
Barbie was identified in Bolivia as early as 1971 by the Klarsfelds (Nazi hunters), but it was only on January 19, 1983, that the newly elected government of Hernán Siles Zuazo arrested and extradited him to France.
TRIAL
In 1984, Barbie was put on trial for crimes committed while he was in charge of the Gestapo in Lyon between 1942 and 1944. The trial started on May 11, 1987, in Lyon — a jury trial before the Rhône Cour d'assises. In a rare move, the court allowed the trial to be filmed because of its historical value. Also, a special court room with seating for an audience of about 700 was constructed.[11] The head prosecutor was Pierre Truche. At the trial Barbie received support not only from Nazi apologists like François Genoud, but also from leftist lawyer Jacques Vergès.
Barbie caused sensations on the first days of the trial: he gave his name as Klaus Altmann (the name he had used while in Bolivia) and, claiming that his extradition was technically illegal, made the request to be excused from the trial and return to his cell at St Joseph prison. This was granted though he was brought back on the 26th of May to face some of his accusers, during which he stated that he had "nothing to say".
Vergès had a reputation for attacking the French political system, particularly in the French colonial empire. His strategy at the trial was to use it to expose war crimes committed by France since 1945. Indeed, many of the charges against Barbie were dropped, thanks to the legislation that had protected people accused of crimes under the Vichy regime and in French Algeria. Vergès further argued that Barbie's actions were no worse than the ordinary actions of colonialists worldwide, and that his trial was selective prosecution. During his trial, Barbie famously stated that: "When I stand before the throne of God I shall be judged innocent".
On July 4, 1987, Barbie was sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity, and died in jail in Lyon of leukemia four years later, at the age of 77.
[edit] In popular culture
Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (March 2011)
This "In popular culture" section may contain minor or trivial references. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture rather than simply listing appearances, and remove trivial references. (April 2011)
Barbie is memorably referred to in the film Rat Race, when the Jewish Pear family stops at the "Barbie Museum", thinking it to be a museum of Barbie dolls. They arrive, shocked at its true subject and threatening staff of neo-nazis, who attempt to portray Klaus Barbie as a "loving husband, devoted father, wine connoisseur, and three-time ballroom dancing champion." Following their awkward departure, the Pear family finds their van destroyed and subsequently steals one of the museum's relics, Adolf Hitler's staff car.
Barbie is referred to in the song "I Saw an X-Ray of a Girl Passing Gas" on the Butthole Surfers' 1988 album Hairway to Steven.
Barbie is referred to in the song "Sheriff Fatman" by Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine from their 1989 album 101 Damnations.
Barbie is also referred to in the song "So Long Bernie" by The Lowest of The Low on their award winning 1991 album "Shakespeare My Butt"
In 1986, Barbie's exposure and deportation story was adapted into a TV movie starring Tom Conti, Farrah Fawcett and Geraldine Page.
The location of Klaus Barbie is offered to the Mossad by the CIA in the spy series The Company.
[edit] References
^ ""Ich bin gekommen, um zu töten"". Spiegel Online. 2 July 2007. http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/zeitgeschichte/0,1518,489560,00.html. Retrieved 2011-01-22.
^ "Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie gets life". BBC. 3 July 1987. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/3/newsid_2492000/2492285.stm. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
^ "Klaus Barbie ausgeliefert". Spiegel Online. http://einestages.spiegel.de/static/topicalbumbackground/1316/klaus_barbie_ausgeliefert.html. Retrieved 2011-01-22.
^ Wolfe, Robert (19 September 2001). "Analysis of the Investigative Records Repository file of Klaus Barbie". Interagency Working Group. http://www.archives.gov/iwg/research-papers/barbie-irr-file.html. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
^ Terkel, Studs (1985). The Good War. Ballantine. ISBN 0345325680.
^ Falcoff, Mark (9 November 1998). "Peron’s Nazi Ties". TIME Magazine 152 (19). http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1998/int/981109/latin_america.perons_na30a.html.
^ "Hearing of Stefano Delle Chiaie on before the Italian Parliamentary Commission on Terrorism headed by President Giovanni Pellegrino" (in Italian). 22 July 1997. http://www.parlamento.it/bicam/terror/stenografici/steno26.htm. Retrieved 2009-05-01. [dead link]
^ "Vom Nazi-Verbrecher zum BND-Agenten". Spiegel Online. 19 January 2011. http://einestages.spiegel.de/static/topicalbumbackground/20021/vom_nazi_verbrecher_zum_bnd_agenten.html. Retrieved 2011-01-22.
^ a b c d e Barbie "Boasted of Hunting Down Che" by David Smith, The Observer, December 23, 2007
^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/06/major-ralph-shelton "Major Ralph Shelton obituary" by Richard Gott, The Guardian, September 6, 2010
^ Barbet Schroeder (director) Jacques Vergès (subject) Klaus Barbie (subject). (2007). L'avocat de la terreur. France: La Sofica Uni Etoile 3. Documentary; English title: “Terror’s Advocate”.
[edit] Further reading
Hilberg, Raul (1982). "Barbie (SS, Lyon)" (in German). Die Vernichtung der europäischen Juden (110 ed.). Olle & Wolter. p. 453. ISBN 978-3883954318. OCLC 10125090. Case No. 77, Fn 908 KsD Lyon IV-B (gez. Ostubaf. Barbie) an BdS, Paris IV-B, 6. April 1944, RF-1235.
Goni, Uki (2002). The Real Odessa: How Peron Brought the Nazi War Criminals to Argentina. Granta Books. ISBN 978-1862074033. A chapter in this book also follows how top Nazis made their way to Argentina and Latin America.
Bower, Tom (1984). Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyons. New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0394533599.
U.S. Samurais in Bruyeres Klaus Barbie found in the Vosges Mountains in Bruyeres after his surgery in Lyon. Barbie rejoins his unit the SIPO-SD of Lyon there and was responsible of the Massacre of Rehaupal in September 1944year=1993 publisher=Editions du CPL [1][2]
[edit] External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Klaus Barbie
Marcel Ophuls’s Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie (1988) at the Internet Movie Database
Kevin Macdonald’s My Enemy’s Enemy (2007) at the Internet Movie Database
L'avocat de la terreur at the Internet Movie Database (English: “Terror's Advocate”)









http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/349/year/1988.html




SynopsisThe life of Barbie, in itself, doesn't interest me. What interests me, it is what comes out of the trial...Mr Levy, a Jew from Lyon, learning over the green covered table in a billiard hall of the Red Cross, studies the stakes involved. In so doing, he calmly sums up the author's point of view. More than 40 years after the events, the trial of a man accused of crimes against humanity suddenly unfolds, is urgent, unavoidable, distressing. But the usefulness of making a film on such a man and his long and complicated journey? A form to tell the story, a style, a tone had to be found: irony and derision prevail over the seriousness of the "official version". School friends, neighbours, ex-employers and his victims who come face to face with a man, his crimes, and his times, which is also our own, alas