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, recruited him, and he may have helped the CIA capture Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara in 1967. Barbie is also suspected of having 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 war crimes and died in prison.
He was convicted in 1986 of "Crimes against humanity" for ordering the extermination of 24 Jewish children in Lyon, France during the holocaust and was given a life sentence. It took 40 years to catch him because he was protected and used by many people including U.S. intelligence officers because he was giving information about Communist agents.
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Was responsible for the interrogation, torture and execution of French Resistance members in World War 2, most notably Jean Moulin.
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Ordered the removal of children and teachers from the school in the village of Izieu, they were sent to Auschwitz on the orders of Barbie and most of them died there.
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Accused of crime against humanity for what he'd done to Jewish people during World War II.
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