Klaus Barbie

German SS officer, head of the Gestapo in Lyon and convicted war criminal (1913–1991)

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Lived 1913–1991, aged 78Germany

Germany

Historical Figures

Wikipedia
47 languages
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Era
1913–1991
Aged 78
Known for
Hôtel Terminus: The Li…
1988

Summary

Updated 2026-08-28

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.

Biography

About

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 r…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Klaus Barbie

Klaus Barbie

said23 Mar 1987

I admire you, but in the end everybody talks.

— To Lise Lesevre during interrogation, from the Saturday, March 23, 1987 issue of "The Philadelphia Inquirer"

Klaus Barbie

said1984

If I think of all those homosexuals in Germany today, I think I'd hand my German passport back, if I had one.

— Quoted in "Klaus Barbie, the "Butcher of Lyons" - Page 23 - by Tom Bower - Biography & Autobiography - 1984

Klaus Barbie

said1984

Don't worry. Your friends are dead and you are going to join them.

— To Blandon from "Klaus Barbie, the "Butcher of Lyons" - Page 63 - by Tom Bower - Biography & Autobiography - 1984

Klaus Barbie

said1983

Perhaps you think that any fool could become a member of the SS. Do you really know what an SS soldier is? He is a superman. He is a professional chosen personally by Hitler.

— Quoted in "The Butcher of Lyon: The Story of Infamous Nazi Klaus Barbie" - Page 140 - by Brendan Murphy - History - 1983

Klaus Barbie

saidundated