# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/klaus-barbie
# Generated: 2026-08-31T23:26:48.270Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/klaus-barbie"
name: "Klaus Barbie"
slug: "klaus-barbie"
description: "Head of the Gestapo in Lyon during World War II, he tortured Jews and Resistance members with such brutality that the label \"Butcher of Lyon\" stuck. After the war, U.S. intelligence smuggled him to Bolivia rather than let France try him — a decision that took four decades to undo."
tagline: "German SS officer, head of the Gestapo in Lyon and convicted war criminal (1913–1991)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Klaus_Barbie.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "Germany"
  isoCode: "DE"
category:
  name: "Historical Figures"
  slug: "historical-figures"
profileType:
  name: "Historical Figure"
  slug: "historical-figure"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2798645"
birthDate: "1913-10-25"
deathDate: "1991-09-25"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           60.58
  momentum:             0
  historical:           28.767912
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     65
  profileCompleteness:  75
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
tags:
  - name: "Historical Figures"
    slug: "historical-figures"
  - name: "Other"
    slug: "other"
  - name: "Germany"
    slug: "germany"
  - name: "Europe"
    slug: "europe"
  - name: "20th Century"
    slug: "20th-century"
platforms:
  - platform:  "IMDB"
    url:       "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0053597/"
    handle:    "nm0053597"
sources:
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q77088"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie"
    title: "Wikipedia"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pantheon.world/profile/person/Klaus%20Barbie"
    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%83%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%B3_%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%89"
    title: "كلاوس باربى"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ast.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie"
    title: "Klaus Barbie"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%83%D1%81_%D0%91%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B1%D0%B8"
    title: "Клаус Барби"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://br.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie"
    title: "Klaus Barbie"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie"
    title: "Klaus Barbie"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie"
    title: "Klaus Barbie"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie"
    title: "Klaus Barbie"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie"
    title: "Klaus Barbie"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9A%CE%BB%CE%AC%CE%BF%CF%85%CF%82_%CE%9C%CF%80%CE%AC%CF%81%CE%BC%CF%80%CE%B9"
    title: "Κλάους Μπάρμπι"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie"
    title: "Klaus Barbie"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie"
    title: "Klaus Barbie"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie"
    title: "Klaus Barbie"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%DA%A9%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%B3_%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A8%DB%8C"
    title: "کلاوس باربی"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie"
    title: "Klaus Barbie"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie"
    title: "Klaus Barbie"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%A7%D7%9C%D7%90%D7%95%D7%A1_%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%91%D7%99"
    title: "קלאוס ברבי"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie"
    title: "Klaus Barbie"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie"
    title: "Klaus Barbie"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hy.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D4%BF%D5%AC%D5%A1%D5%B8%D6%82%D5%BD_%D4%B2%D5%A1%D6%80%D5%A2%D5%AB%D5%A5"
    title: "Կլաուս Բարբիե"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie"
    title: "Klaus Barbie"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://io.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie"
    title: "Klaus Barbie"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://it.wikiquote.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://pt.wikiquote.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie"
    title: "Klaus Barbie"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie"
    title: "Klaus Barbie"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%83%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%B3_%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A"
    title: "كلاوس باربي"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Born Niklaus Barbie on 25 October 1913, he rose through the Schutzstaffel and Sicherheitsdienst to command the Gestapo in Lyon, where he personally administered torture to prisoners. When the war ended, American counterintelligence recruited him for anti-communist work and helped him escape to Bolivia, evading French arrest warrants and death sentences issued in absentia in 1947 and 1954. In Bolivia he advised the dictatorship on suppression tactics and was later recruited by West German intelligence; he is suspected of involvement in the 1980 coup by Luis García Meza. Discovered in 1972, he remained protected until the regime fell. Extradited to France in 1983, he was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life — capital punishment having been abolished two years earlier. He died of cancer in his Lyon prison cell on 25 September 1991, at seventy-seven.