Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyons

by Tom Bower

The journalist who broke the story of Barbie's American connection chronicles the career of the Gestapo chief of Lyon--scheduled for trial in Spring 1984--and his recruitment by American intelligence

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Holocaust, World War II, Research, War

255 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

For the author of works on child development, see T.G.R. Bower

Tom Bower (born 28 September 1946) is a British writer, noted for his investigative journalism and for his unauthorized biographies.

A former Panorama reporter, his books include unauthorised biographies of Tiny Rowland, Robert Maxwell, Mohamed Al-Fayed, Geoffrey Robinson, Gordon Brown and Richard Branson.

He won the 2003 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award for Broken Dreams, an investigation into corruption in English football. His joint biography of Conrad Black and Barbara Amiel Conrad and Lady Black: Dancing on the Edge was published in November 2006, and an unsuccessful libel case over a passing mention of Daily Express proprietor Richard Desmond in the book was heard in July 2009.

An unauthorised biography by Bower of Richard Desmond, provisionally entitled Rough Trader, awaits publication. Bowers's biography of Simon Cowell, written with Cowell's co-operation, was published on 20 April, 2012.

Bower is married to Veronica Wadley, former editor of the London Evening Standard, and has four children.

Reviews

[JD · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about the life and crimes of Klaus Barbie, during and after World War 2. Half of the book covers his wartime service in the Gestapo and the other half his work for American intelligence and his life in South America. The book was written in the 1980's after his arrest and extradition from Bolivia and an update of his time in jail and death would have been good for the digital edition. Though he was brought to justice in the end for his crimes, the punishment did not fit the crime and came too late for a remorseless man like Barbie.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a reprint of a 1984 biography of Klaus Barbie, originally published just after he was extradited to France in 1983 and the part played by Parisian lawyer Serge Klarsfeld and his German wife, Beate, who had battled to bring Barbie back to Europe.

Nikolaus ‘Klaus’ Barbie was born in 1913. He had a difficult relationship with his father, a primary school teacher, who was wounded by the French during the First World War; a fact which becomes more relevant later in the book. Both Barbie’s brother, and his father, died in 1933 and, shortly afterwards, he became an early convert to National Socialism. The book tells his early involvement with the Nazi party, before he arrived in Lyons in 1942 as the head of the Gestapo. Without doubt, Barbie’s level of personal involvement in the violence and torture unleashed by him in France, was vicious even by the standards of the time. He seemed to relish the most barbaric torture methods and was commended by Himmler on his, “consistent work in defeating Resistance organisations.”

However, Barbie was also extremely realistic about Germany’s ability to win the war. As the Reich collapsed, he tried to escape and, a master himself at interrogating victims, he passed himself off as a normal soldier and vanished underground. Although the US had committed itself to prosecuting German war criminals, Barbie was a survivalist who quickly decided to forget fighting the Allies and accepted an offer to join them. He was recruited by the Americans as an intelligent agent, as suspicion turned from Germany and towards Russia.

By 1950, there was political pressure from Paris to put Barbie on trial and he escaped Europe, with his family, with official help from the US and settled in Bolivia. Of course, South America was popular with many Nazi’s fleeing Europe and, as Barbie built a new life, he was sentenced to death in his absence in France. The book continues to explain how he was brought to justice and ends with him awaiting trial.

This is something of a disappointment. In a new edition, it would have been useful had there been an update on what happened and why it took so long to bring Barbie back to Europe. I feel, in many ways, this was a lost opportunity. Tom Bower, whose parents fled Prague after the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, to settle in London, is still writing and so could, presumably, have been asked to update the book; or even to have written an epilogue for the new edition. Possibly he was not asked, but I felt it would have been useful – especially as this edition finished before the trial. Still, an interesting biography and good to see the book re-printed. I received a copy of this from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

Rated 3.5

[Cold War Conversations Podcast · Rating 3 out of 5]

1984 reprint of the biography infamous Butcher of Lyons

Bowyer's biography is detailed and well written. He portrays Barbie's early life, his heinous brutality in the SS and his recruitment by US intelligence to fight communism.

Sadly the book ends while he is being held in France for trail and therefore there is no detail on his subsequent incarceration and death in prison.

The book is still worth a read to try and understand a man directly responsible for the deaths of up to 14,000 people.

[Icy_Space_Cobwebs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review of KLAUS BARBIE: THE BUTCHER OF LYONS
by Tom Bowers

An eye-opening and mind-boggling investigation into the life and times of Klaus Barbie, the Nazi officer who during World War II was Gestapo Commander of Lyons, Occupied France, reveals the lengths to which greed and love of power can propel humans. When those two drives are in control, any sense of humanity, compassion, empathy, and morality take a back seat. Such is demonstrated by the ease with which this horrible individual lived, in Bolivia and elsewhere, not concealed, but rather “in plain sight,” well known to governments, presidents, and other high-level officials and politicians. Barbie lived as if no retribution for his actions as a dedicated Nazi would ever occur, not even for the mass murders under his command. But a Parisian attorney and his German wife dedicated themselves to bring Barbie to justice, or failing that, to extermination.

[Herb Hastings · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has the feel of journalism rather than a history. The information is interesting and informative but incomplete. It was published in 1984, after Barbie was taken into custody and returned to France after 40 years of hiding in Bolivia. However, his trial didn't take place until May of 1987. It's as though the author wasn't willing to wait for the end of the story. The author does cover his career as a Gestapo Officer, and the atrocities he committed. Also a quick history of the French Resistance is covered highlighting its heroes and traitors.

That said, the book contains important yet disappointing facts. The reason it took so long to find Barbie was that he was aided by the United States intelligence community. In the immediate post war period he was viewed as a valuable anti communist asset . His status as a wanted war criminal was apparently viewed as an unfortunate inconvenience. When the French government became too insistent that he be arrested and returned to France for trial, it was agents of the United States who spirited him out of Europe and provided him and his family with new identities.
If you read this book, the trial and its ramifications are covered online in an excellent article found at the jewishVirtualLibrary.org.

[Mandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although this biography of Klaus Barbie is thoroughly researched, informative and accessible, I was disappointed that it hadn’t been updated in any way since its original publication in 1984. Thus it only takes the reader up to Barbie’s arrest and trial and then suddenly stops. It seems to me to be a cynical publishing decision to simply reissue it without even bothering to add an epilogue or an afterword – after all the author is still writing so it wouldn’t have been that difficult to give a summary of the last part of Barbie’s life. So I felt quite cheated. Overall it’s a worthy enough biography though narrated in a rather flat and monotonous tone and perhaps tells too much of the events surrounding Barbie, and of what was happening in the wider world, rather than concentrating on the man and his psychology in depth. I didn’t feel that I had a good understanding of this man at all, only of what he actually did. A rather unsatisfying reading experience all round in the end.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book details Klaus Barbie's World War II military career as a German officer and the evil choices he willingly made. This is an evil man who used the complexities of war to his own advantage. He was the type of Nazi that gave all Nazis a bad name.

This is the same man the Americans chose to forgive at the end of fighting and allow him to go to the US and protected him from prosecution. The US used him for their own intelligence purposes. When he had outlived his usefulness, he ended up in South Africa which was the favourite bolt hole for on the run nazis. It took until 1983 for Barbie to be eventually extradited from Bolivia to France to face charges.

Other nations as well as the US made excuses and tried to downplay and cover-up their part in his years of freedom. It was disgusting and unforgivable. As was Barbie.

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was OK but think it needs to be updated as the end does not tell you what happened to him in the end. A lot of the book was about political manovering that has revance but should not be the center of the book.

[Ellie Midwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book for research purposes and it was incredibly informative, given that it was written in 1984 when Barbie was just indicted for his war crimes, and many of the documents that are now available to the biographers still weren’t declassified. The book tells Barbie’s full life story, starting with his childhood (which was not a particularly happy one) and his decision to join the SS (more out of necessity, by the way: his own grandfather refused to give him any of his inheritance after Barbie’s father’s death due to Barbie being the illegitimately born child, thus rendering Klaus’s dream of entering the university and becoming an archaeologist or a lawyer, impossible) and finishing with Barbie’s extradition to France and his indictment.
Based on Barbie’s own confessions and witnesses’ accounts, the author paints an accurate picture of what was going on in Lyon during Barbie’s Gestapo reign there, and the war with the Resistance which he waged on a nearly daily basis. Retracing Barbie’s activities step by step, the author presents us a portrait of not just a mere bureaucrat that Barbie was trying to present himself in 1984, but a cunning, sharp, ruthless Gestapo chief, who will stop at nothing to achieve his goals.
Another fascinating part about this biography is Barbie’s relationship with his American handlers from the CIC after the war, and how he managed to charm nearly every single one of them to the point, where they outright refused to extradite him to the French and smuggled him to South America via the infamous Rat Line instead. Incredibly riveting and informative, this biography is a must-read for all WW2 history buffs.

[Roger · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a young boy growing up in the 1970s, surrounded by relatives that had fought in World War II, I was fascinated by the conflict. Being a child, I thought of the War in childish ways, building model kits of aircraft, and re-enacting battles with my friends in the local neighbourhood. It wasn't until the early 1980s, when the trial of Klaus Barbie made the headlines, that I began to realise that war truly is terrible. Tom Bower's book, written after Barbie was arraigned but before the trial started, is a well researched and thorough investigation of Barbie's career, crimes, work for the Americans post-war, flight to South America and final return to France to face justice.

It's clear from the evidence Bower presents to the reader that Barbie was cruel and sadistic. Despite his own view of himself as an expert in interrogation, he resorted to brutal treatment at the earliest opportunity in most of the interrogations he undertook. As head of the Gestapo in Lyons, Barbie was responsible for neutralizing resistance to the Nazi regime in both Lyons and the surrounding areas and there is no doubt he used the most brutal measures to try and quell rebellion, including destroying whole villages, and shooting many innocent civilians in the process. He was also deeply involved in rounding up the Jews of Lyons for transport to the East, and to their deaths.

When the War was over, Barbie managed to find his way into the arms of American Intelligence, who used him to keep tabs on the Bavarian Communist Party. This section of the book shows in a very detailed way how ambivalence and incompetence allowed a war criminal to not only work for American Intelligence, but be interviewed by the French to provide evidence in a trial, while the Americans denied to the French that they even knew where he was. The various American handlers of Barbie had differing feelings about using him as an informer, from disgust to indifference. The shambolic and shameful handling of war crimes investigations (which Bower wrote about in Blind Eye to Murder), meant that Barbie not only could live for five years in Germany, but then travel to Bolivia under an assumed name, all organised by the American secret services.

Barbie, under the name Klaus Altmann, lived in Bolivia for many years as an open Nazi sympathiser, and friend of Presidents and coup-plotters alike. It seemed that he had cheated justice, especially as the West German Government lost interest in tracking him down. It was down to the Klarsfeld family, who refused to accept that Nazis should get away with their crimes, to push, cajole, grandstand, and finally embarrass the German, French and Bolivian Governments into sending him back to France for trial.

History records that Barbie was sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 1991.

Klaus Barbie: Butcher of Lyons is a well researched, well written and eye-opening book.

Check out my other reviews at http://aviewoverthebell.blogspot.com.au/

[David Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so disappointed. The book ended before Barbie's trial.

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book documents the history of the cruel sadist, Klaus Barbie, who became head of the Gestapo in the town of Lyon in what was originally Vichy France during the Second World War. Barbie seems to have enjoyed torturing his victims and there are some harrowing descriptions of this, including his beating to death various members of the Resistance. He also led raids on remote villages suspected of supporting the Resistance and carried out massacres. Notoriously, he raided a shelter for Jewish orphans and children whose parents had sent them there for safety. He deported most of them to Auschwitz where they were all gassed, and a couple of others plus one of the adults who was taking care of the children were shot. His comment that it made no difference whether they were shot or sent to the camp was used years later to prove that he did know about the Final Solution.

After the war there was a lot of chaos. Despite being on wanted lists, a lot of war criminals escaped justice by changing their names, and by escaping to South America, aided by the Vatican. The overriding concern of the Americans was the threat posed by the Soviet Union, and they recrutied Barbie because he was anti-communist. They sheltered him when the French authorities tried to extradite him from Germany and eventually smuggled him to South America where he worked as a security consultant. In reality he was helping the government with training in the best ways to torture political prisoners. He also worked with gangsters gun running etc. Attempts were made to bring him back to France, but until a democratic government was instituted, he was always hidden. Finally, a couple in France made tireless efforts to bring him to justice and he was extradited, but the book oddly ends before the trial. From the other reviews on Goodreads, it seems that even a later reprint was not updated. The internet writeups record that he was found guilty of some of his crimes - he wasn't charged with a lot of them - and received a sentence of life imprisonment, but died of cancer a few years later. Despite containing information on subjects I knew little about, such as the French Resistance, the book is quite drily written and dragged once Barbie reached South America, so I would rate it as 3 stars.

[ProfX · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much of the information is good and is occasionally well written, but it mostly reads like an overlong newspaper article (the author, Tom Bower, was in investigative journalist). I typically dislike history written by journalists for myriad reasons, and writing style and lack of historical objectivity are but a couple. Still I was glad to learn more about the German occupation of Southern France of which I knew very little. Barbie was exactly what you would expect him to be given his reputation: arrogant, vain, aggressive, cruel, sadistic, and prideful are but a few ugly words that would describe him. His history with the American post-war intelligence agencies in Western Europe was the most surprising part of his story for me. I would like to learn more about the Odessa network and other post-war networks that this book only briefly touches on.

In short, not the best written piece of history you can find but it's worth a read if you are looking to learn more about Barbie, the German occupation of Southern France, or the post-war activities of various Nazi fugitives.

[Alana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Here is how most of this book reads: date, place, name, date, place, name, name, place, name, date, date, name, name, name, date, name, name, place, date, name, etc. As someone who is terrible with dates and names, I skimmed most of the first half of the book and retained little. My stomach was in knots reading through the horrific details of Barbie's inflicted terror. There was a lot that was hard to digest here, and I could do so only in small doses. The second half became more interesting to me, telling of Barbie's work for the U.S. government, his fleeing to South America, and lengthy pursuit of returning him home for trial. But even that was very dry. And given that the book was written just after his trial began, there is no resolution here; it is a partial story. No doubt important at the time, there are perhaps better and more complete works out there at this point.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of Klaus Barbie is another example of the shocking and terrible things a person is willing to inflict on others. Despite the years that have passed the devastating impact remains felt on many generations of victims. It's always so disappointing to read of governments willingness to use such people for questionable aim. It's frightening to see the reality of hate and racism so prevalent today despite the known lessons from WWII and beyond.

[Simon Parsons · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are plenty of books that describe the inhumanity of war, and this one describe well how Klaus Barbie played a brutal part in the Second World War. But this book goes to to show the duplicity of post war politics, and how past sins were forgiven, as long as he worked well for the Americans - showing that the just post war era has many interesting tales to tell.

[Joel Ungar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hit and miss

It reads like three books. The first book goes through the end of the war and is interesting. The second section covers post war and up through his time in Bolivia and Peru and is just boring. The final section picks up the story of the Klarsfelds and is pretty good.

[Eli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall; informative, well researched and well written.


I was previously familiar with the broad strokes of Barbies time in Lyons from other sources but the info about his time working for the Americans and in South America was new to me. All of it was interesting. What was new, and shocking, to me, was the breadth of the (mostly unspoken) conspiracy to ignore the crimes committed by and under the Nazi regime. I was aware that a large majority of the grunt level Nazis were not prosecuted but I had no idea that so many high level Nazi’s were ignored.

Overall; informative, well researched and well written, the books one flaw, and it’s a big one, is the ending. The book ends just before Barbie’s trial starts. I knew this from another review otherwise this would have been very jarring. It is understandable timing wise but it would have been nice if the writer had gone back and updated the book after the trial. It would be valuable information to include and it would have made a more conclusive ending.

[Susan Forest · Rating 3 out of 5]

The biography of one of the most notorious SS men to run the Gestapo in Lyon, France during World War II. This book not only provides the factual details, but provides a sense of the attitudes of various factions of the time, creating in-depth portraits of the historical personages.

[Barbara Lebouton west · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard to get into but the writing was so good that even though the topic was a tough one....it was interesting enough to keep me focused.

[Kevin Key · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched. I’m left wondering the U.S. involvements stories and the Nazis after the war. And why.

[Frederick David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating story. The amount of info in the book was a little tedious but, then again, the subject matter demands all the info that is shared.

[Michael Hermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was ok, just not what I expected. It spent more time talking about the French Resistance groups and the people trying to arrest Barbie than it did giving any real insight into Barbie.

[Andy DeGaust]

Enjoyed the book but I believe that in the final analysis, Barbie didn't really pay for his crimes.

[Brianne Schoch · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a DNF for me.

[AL Kepple · Rating 1 out of 5]

I ended up DNFing this one. I wasn't able to get into this book. I don't have anything to actually point at for why.

[Lisabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow what a book. This had a lot of information about his family. Some parts were really sad but it was worth your time and money

[Phil O'Hagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly depressing read - the usual war narrative is good guys won & bad guys punished. Klaus Barbie’s story shines a light on the fact that it wasn’t this simple, the lines were blurred and ultimately justice wasn’t served effectively. We should never forget - so whilst I didn’t “enjoy” reading this book, these are important artefacts for future generations

[Yibbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very detailed and, considering the nature of the subject, well-documented biography. Bower did a good job of presenting all the different and often contradictory versions of events. Much of the book is about Barbie's life after the war especially the years immediately following the war when he had the most dealings with American intelligence agencies.
It is hard to read. There is so much evil, torture, murder, and all of on such a massive scale. Then because of the format, after reading the victims account, you read Barbie’s denials.
I learned a great deal, but, for all its thoroughness, it was incomplete. You won’t learn Barbie’s final fate. That was aggravating. It only covers Barbie’s life through his arrest. His trial isn’t covered at all. I ended up having to go to another source for that.
I received this as a free ARC from NetGalley and Open Road Integrated Media. No review as required.

[Ginny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a re-release of the 1984 book by the same name. I am not sure why the book wasn't updated since much happened after the original publication, including Barbie's trail (He was found guility) and his punishment. (He was sentenced to life in prison and died there in 1991.

This book gets the balance right with adequate to detail to give a complete picture of his time in the Gestapo, post-war work for American intelligence and subsequent escape to and expulsion from Bolivia. I have read alot about the major Nazi war criminals, and it seems to me that Barbie is one of the few who actually reveled in the pain and death he dispensed to the people of Lyon, France and the surrounding area. The descriptions of the torture inflicted on the unfortunate members of the French Resistance who fell into his hands are difficult to read.

Even more shameful and outrageous were his activities with the fledgling American intelligence community after the war. It continues to astound me that America's embrace of these despicable war criminals in the name of stopping the spread of Communism was tolerated and even encouraged. Clearly, the Americans knew what kind of person Barbie was, the crimes he was accused of and the fact that France was actively looking for him; yet they continued to to hide and protect him from those seeking justice. Unfortunately, his is not the only example of such outrageous behavior. The US has much to account for in their own post-war behavior.

Although the book is dated, it still brings accurate and detailed information on what happened to this one Gestapo bully during and after the war. If you believe the Nuremberg Trails delivered justice to those whose lives were ruined by the Nazis, you need to read this book and contemplate the culpability of the American government in the escape from justice so many criminals.