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Drawing Plantu for The World 6 and 7 February 1983 (DR). Serge Klarsfeld: This e xpulsion represents " a sunbeam justice." Four more years of patience and finally start the Barbie trial ...
First conviction in France
for crimes against humanity:
Klaus Barbie
From 11 May to 4 July 1987 a trial was held hearings in 37 the court of Lyon. Klaus Barbie - 73 years - was prosecuted for crimes against humanity committed while he headed the Gestapo in Lyon, between November 1942 and August 1944. Among the shadows that haunted the scene: that of Jean Moulin and rounded up 44 children in the colony Izieu because Jews ...
Barbie does deign to attend three days of his trial ...
A " crime against humanity "falls" murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and inhumane acts against civilian populations (...) or persecutions on political, racial or religious group, where such acts or persecution, whether or not in violation of the law countries where they were committed, were committed in the wake of any crime within the jurisdiction of the court or in connection with this crime. "
(Nuremberg, art. 6c).
Alain Jakubowicz (Parts civilian):
- "The emotion is palpable. Klaus Barbie was introduced. I am immediately struck by her eyes. His blue eyes of steel. I do not understand how one could recognize a man after 40 years. Now I understand. He who has crossed the eye can not forget.
" Accused please stand up."
Barbie complies. He asked the German language with the help of two interpreters. To the first question:
" What are your name? "
he answers " Klaus Altman.
The scene is set. It's the identity he had adopted in Bolivia after leaving Europe with the help of the CIA. And yes, let's not forget that we have gone unabated in the second World War to the Cold War and the former SS men were masters in the fight against Bolshevism. Their information was invaluable U.S. Secret Service. After use, they helped them move to South America where, like Barbie, they have not renounced their ideology in the service of the bloodiest military juntas.
However, there is no doubt about the identity of the man. That's the oberstürm SS-Führer Klaus Barbie in Lyon which raged from 1942 to 1944, which is before us. "
(Lyon Capitale, May 15, 2007).
K. Barbie at his trial and in SS uniform (Mont. JPO / DR). Evidence before the court in Lyon in May 1987:
Irene Clair
- "Barbie} {He stood, furious, calling us terrorists , assassins, bandits. That instantly made me laugh. So he called a policeman saying
" You, my little blonde is gonna mater.
(...) I have been so in the presence of my head and was in a terrible state. At thirty-four, it looked like an old man of ninety years. It blew me:
" It takes a lot of courage .
He could also tell me what he had suffered: electricity, batons, hanging by the arms, it was no longer standing. "
(AS Resistant, arrested March 9, 1994 to age of 21, survivor of Ravensbrück).
Lise Lefèvre:
- "I was arrested May 13, 1944 by a team of Barbie (...).
I saw him for the first time at school health Military Avenue Berthelot, where he had his seat. I worked for the Resistance and had on me, unfortunately, a fold for a liaison officer called Didier. He wanted me to say who was Didier (...). As
got nothing, he said
" We will get your husband and your son and you shall speak .
I saw them coming and another one later. This was the worst time, and it did it again:
" Who is Didier? Where is Didier?"
(...) I found myself in a room, naked, strapped to a chair. It came to show me a kind of whip with a spiky ball, controlled by a spring. They started hitting me, I do not know how long, taking turns, drinking beer and rum. When I regained consciousness, I found myself in an elegant lounge where I was sitting in an armchair. And Barbie, kneeling beside me, nice as can be, congratulated me for my courage, but added that it always ended with talking and it was better than I do now. "
(survivor of Ravensbrück. Her husband and son died at Dachau).
Simone Kadosh:
- "It was the fourth floor in a beige office. He came dressed in gray, it was a cat in her arms. I did not get so scared, thinking a man stroking a cat could not be too bad. He went first to my father looked at him without a word from head to foot, he has come to Mama and then finally to me. He stroked my cheek, telling me that I was pretty. He asked my mother:
"You have other children?"
As she replied:
"Yes, they are in the country ..."
he wanted to get the names, addresses. He asked the cat. He came toward me and suddenly defeated mesh that held my hair to grab them suddenly, pulling me back, and then I got a pair of galoshes masterful, the first in my life.
Later, it was another thing: batons, kicks ... "
(At 13, denounced his parents as Jewish. Arrested the day of the Normandy landings).
The plight of children Izieu set by a telegram signed Barbie, SS-Führer Oberstürm (Doc. JPO / DR).
Rene Wucher, a survivor of the roundup Izieu:
- "The trucks arrived and we were on the first floor. There was a big commotion. We pushed in these trucks. The one where I was, broke down in front of the bakery in the village. People are so recognized me, they shouted me know that I was not Jewish. That's the way that we finally made me get off, I found myself in the back room. When I came out later, there was no one. "
(Retired RATP).
Lea Feldblum, counselor to the colony Izieu:
-" I loved them, smaller cried, others have sung { You will not have Alsace and Lorraine }. There, they were all burned. Me, I do not know why they pushed me on the other side. There was Mengele and the leader of the camp itself. I was told to move on and I found myself in quarantine. "
(24 years in 1944).
Sabina Zlatin wants to save the children rounded up:
- "I went in Vichy, dressed in my nursing uniform military Red Cross. I asked the Hotel du Parc to see a official. I told him the tragedy that had happened to Izieu and I told him
"Can you do something for these children?"
He left the room and then when he returned, it was to tell me:
"What have you to worry about those dirty kike?"
(...) {A Militia, in Darnand} I was not afraid. What could I be scared to the point where we were? One who received me, I shouted this time, no sooner had I finished explaining what it was:
"Get out immediately or I will have you arrested."
(Polish immigrant in France, naturalized in 1937. Director of the colony Izieu. In Montpellier at the time of the raid).
Sabina Szlatin to Mr. Vergès, defender of Barbie
- "Barbie has always said in his defense he was occupied only of resisters, of guerrillas. So I would ask the forty-four children Izieu, what was it? What were they then? Terrorists? Resisters? No, they were all innocent!
What say? Those with children will understand my pain. No, for this crime Izieu, there is no forgiveness or forgetting. "
World 5 and July 6, 1987 (DR).
The verdict was delivered on 4 July 1987: Barbie is convicted of 17 crimes against humanity. The death penalty has been abolished in France under the leadership of Minister ... Badinter life imprisonment is imposed.
Klaus Barbie makes her last breath in prison September 25, 1991.
The president Ugo Iannucci (plaintiffs):
- "Barbie denied the facts, but denied him anything about the Nazi ideology, based among others on the myth of the superiority of the German people. It never displayed emotion. He had been the SS "fearless and cruel as Hitler wanted ...
His trial served not {}" write history, but primarily, to give voice to victims. These last after trial, have traveled to schools and colleges to prepare youth to say no to criminal orders, to uphold conscience over obedience, respect the dignity of every human being. "
(July 4, 2007, Lyon, commemoration 20th Anniversary of the trial).
