Klaus Barbie was born on 25 October 1913 in Bad Godesberg near Bonn. From 1933 to 1935, he was a member of the “Hitler Youth” and showed fanatical enthusiasm for Nazi ideology during his stay in a work camp for the youth which had been organised by the national socialist party.
He met Himmler in 1935 and joined the SS. Shortly afterwards he became a member of the intelligence services in Berlin and took part in the persecution of Jews and homosexuals. He was then sent to The Hague and Amsterdam where he was also put in charge of the persecution of political refugees from Germany and Jews.
Barbie arrived in France in 1942 and was made Chief of the Gestapo (secret police) in Lyon. The criminal offences he was later accused of took place during his time in France.
Klaus Barbie was accused of being responsible for the deportation of hundreds of French Jews, in particular:
- the arrest of 44 children and seven adults in the children’s home of Izieu on 6 April 1944 and their deportation to the camp Auschwitz Birkenau
- the raid at the Union Générale des Israélites de France (UGIF) on Rue Sainte-Catherine in Lyon on 9 February 1943, when 86 people were arrested and deported
- the deportation of more than 600 people in the convoy of 11 August 1944 which was the last deportation from Lyon.
Numerous witnesses gave evidence in court about the abuse and torture inflicted on them by Barbie and his men.
In 1952 and 1954, thePermanenMilitary Tribunal in Lyon had sentenced Klaus Barbie to death in absentia. The court listed the abuses and war crimes committed: torture, executions, deportations, looting.
