He became known as the " Butcher of Lyon " for having personally tortured prisonersβprimarily Jews and members of the French Resistance βas the head of the Gestapo in Lyon. After the war, United States intelligence services employed him for his anti-communist efforts and aided his escape to Bolivia, where he advised the dictatorial regime on how to repress opposition through torture.
In , the United States apologised to France for the U. Counterintelligence Corps helping him escape to Bolivia, [ 2 ] aiding Barbie's escape from an outstanding arrest warrant. In , it was discovered he was in Bolivia. After the fall of the dictatorship, Barbie lost the protection of the government in La Paz. In , he was arrested and extradited to France, where he was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison.
Although he had been sentenced to death in absentia twice earlier, in and , capital punishment had been abolished in France in Barbie died of cancer in , at age 77, in his Lyon prison. The Barbie family came from Merzig , in the Saar near the border with France.
In , his father, also named Nikolaus, was conscripted to fight in the First World War. He was wounded in the neck at Verdun and captured by the French, whom he hated, [ citation needed ] and he never recovered his health.
Until , when he was 10, Klaus Barbie attended the local school where his father taught. Afterwards, he attended a boarding school in Trier , and was relieved to be away from his father, who abused him. In , the entire Barbie family moved to Trier. In June , Barbie's younger brother Kurt died, at the age of 18, of a chronic illness.
