What they could not, or did not want, or what they could neither wanted to do the allies in the postwar period, the United States Intelligence Central later, the Bolivian armed government and forces for two decades, the cunning achieved it, the patienceand the talent of two journalists.
Hace medio siglo, el criminal de guerra nazi Klaus Barbie, conocido como “El carnicero de Lyon” por haber comandado la Gestapo en esa ciudad durante la ocupación alemana de Francia, acusado de asesinar con sus manos y en medio de la tortura al líder de la resistencia Jean Moulin, responsable de miles de deportaciones de judíos franceses a los campos de concentración nazis y de la detención y tortura de más de catorce mil personas, fue desenmascarado en Bolivia por el periodista francés Ladislas de Hoyos. Vivía como funcionario no reconocido de la dictadura militar boliviana bajo el falso nombre de Klaus Altmann.
Meses después, otro periodista, el argentino Alfredo Serra, entrevistó a Barbie en la cárcel de La Paz y en un reportaje fantástico le hizo admitir sus crímenes.
Barbie was extradited to France, judged and sentenced to life imprisonment.He died in prison on September 25, 1991, one month before serving seventy -eight years.
The story has little known, or little remembered, that return to light after fifty years, including the trap that the French journalist tended to Barbie to confirm his identity, the technique of Serra so that the war criminal ends up accepting hiscrimes and a way of doing journalism that seems lost.
Who was Klaus Barbie?A convinced Nazi. Había nacido el 25 de octubre de 1913, en Bad Godesberg, que era entonces parte del Imperio Alemán.At twenty he joined the Hitler youths, he was a personal assistant of the head of the local Nazi party and in 1935 he enlisted in the SS, the armed branch of the security of Reich and went to work in the internal security service of the Gestapo, the Nazi State Police.He joined the Nazi party in 1937 and was promoted to Utentersturmführer, a hurry, in April 1940, already in the middle of the Second War. Fue enviado a Ámsterdam en 1941 como miembro de la Sección IVB4: era la oficina subordinada a la Central de Seguridad del Reich, responsable de los “asuntos judíos” y de la ubicación, evacuación y deportación de judíos en todo el territorio europeo ocupado por Alemania. Tuvo como jefe en esa sección a Adolf Eichmann.
In 1942 Barbie was sent to Lyon as head of the local Gestapo. Desarticuló parte de la resistencia local y capturó al líder Jean Moulin, el delfín del general Charles De Gaulle para unificar la resistencia francesa.
Barbie, conocido por ser un interrogador despiadado que participaba de buen grado de los tormentos a los prisioneros, torturó en persona, a diario y durante tres semanas a Moulin, que murió el 8 de julio de 1943.
En el cuartel general de la Gestapo en Lyon, el famoso Hotel Terminus, había salas de tortura con bañeras para el infernal tormento del agua, mesas con correas, pinzas dentadas, hornos de gas, aparatos para provocar descargas eléctricas y hasta perros entrenados para atacar a los prisioneros.
Otro de los crímenes de Barbie fue la deportación de un grupo de cuarenta y cuatro chicos judíos de entre cuatro y diecisiete años, que vivían en un hogar de Izieu, en el sur de Francia y habían sido rescatados por un matrimonio que los ocultaba en una granja del valle del Ródano. Sus identidades judías eran un secreto, figuraban en los papeles oficiales como “refugiados”, pero Barbie los capturó, los transfirió de inmediato a un campo de tránsito para ser deportados luego a Auschwitz, donde los esperaban las cámaras de gas.
Only in France the deportation towards the death of 7 were attributed to Barbie.500 people, 4.432 murders and arrest and torture of 14.311 resistance fighters. Por esos crímenes, fue juzgado en ausencia en Francia y condenado a la horca luego de la guerra.But after the war, Barbie worked in Europe as a CIC informant, the United States Counter -Storing Central, which had not yet been born to the CIA.
Barbie's fate was that of many SS murderers, recruited by the Americans to fight communism in which they were the first deaf fights of the cold war.The former SS, under a false identity, gave valuable information to American intelligence about French espionage and about Soviet activities in the German area then occupied by the United States.
In 1949 it was not even a secret that Barbie did and with whom.France asked for their extradition and the Americans decided to facilitate the flight. Su destino fue el mismo que el de sus antiguos camaradas: América del Sur.
En 1951 usó la famosa ratline, la ruta y los papeles que están descriptos con minucioso rigor en el libro Ruta de escape, de Philippe Sands: nueva identidad en Italia, pasaporte de la Cruz Roja, embarque en Génova hacia Argentina. Fue la ruta de Eichmann y fue la de Barbie, que le confesaría a Alfredo Serra que había viajado hacia el continente en el barco “Corrientes”, de la empresa de Alberto Dodero, muy ligado al entonces presidente Juan Perón.Barbie recalled having lived ten days at the Dorá hotel on Maipú Street.
Después llegó a Bolivia y se instaló en La Paz en la misma época en la que el gobierno francés lo juzgaba en ausencia y lo sentenciaba a muerte. Se dedicó al comercio, a la compraventa de armas, se unió al ambiente político boliviano, siempre volátil, obtuvo la ciudadanía de ese país bajo su falso nombre de Klaus Altmann y un pasaporte diplomático que le permitió viajar a Europa y a Estados Unidos sin impedimentos.
En el reportaje que Alfredo Serra le hizo en La Paz en 1973, Barbie admitió haber estado incluso en Francia en 1966: “¿Sabe qué hice? Llevé flores a la tumba de Jean Moulin”."For repentance or by sarcasm?"Serra asked her that she didn't eat candies. “Porque fue mi mejor enemigo.The most difficult one. El más digno”, contestó Barbie con una épica que no tenía.
During the military dictatorship of General René Barrientos, Barbie was appointed General Manager of the Bolivian Transmarimima Company, created in 1967 by Barrientos with public and private capitals: a regular business mold in this part of the continent. Era una empresa “tapadera” que facilitaba el tráfico de armas al servicio de la dictadura.When Barrientos died in 1969 in a helicopter accident, the transmaritimal broke and Barbie star began to go out.He went to Peru, where he was located and identified by the French Nazis hunters Serge and Kate Klarsfeld.Barbie-Altmann returned to Bolivia, protected now, in 1971, by the dictatorship of General Hugo Banzer.
Then the French journalist Ladislas de Hoyos entered history. Había nacido en 1939, cuando Barbie era una estrella en ascenso del cielo criminal de las SS.At twenty -one he was a journalist of France Soir, and in 1971 he joined the ORTF, the French broadcasting and television organization. A finales de enero de ese año, de Hoyos se largó a Bolivia con la idea de desenmascarar a Barbie, que decía ser Altmann.
Como tal, y como ciudadano de ese país, era necesario probar primero que Altmann era Barbie, antes de que Francia pidiera su extradición. Mientras tanto, gozaba de una protección especial ante cualquier intento de secuestro, como había ocurrido once años antes con Eichmann en Buenos Aires.
Hoyos asked, and obtained, an interview with Altmann for French television, TF1.He wore a trap in his pocket.He agreed the terms of that report with the Minister of the Interior: the journalist had no right to ask more than some questions in Spanish and authorized by the Ministry, the talk was going to be supervised by the Bolivian army. Está todo filmado. Así lo recordó en un tuit de Loopsider el periodista franco-argentino Alejo Schapiro.
The interview begins under armed surveillance. Altmann niega ser Barbie: “Yo no soy Barbie, ya se los he dicho, soy Klaus Altmann”.
At a forty -five second minute, Hoyos begins to ask in German, take out his trap out of his pocket and take two photos to Barbie: one of himself when he was young and another by Jean Moulin.Barbie takes the photos in her hands.Hoyos are heard, for Moulin: "Do you recognize that man?""No," says Barbie, "I think something has been published by‘ Paris Match ’about this man, this image is from there".
En ese momento, De Hoyos recupera las fotos de manos de Barbie y las guarda en su chaqueta: tiene las huellas digitales de Altmann. Le pide a Barbie que diga algunas frases en francés.The guards get nervous because the journalist does not respect what is agreed, he does not speak in Spanish, he does not ask the questions that he must.The cameraman Christian Van Ryswick intuits what is coming, delivers what he filmed, which is not much, to the French consul who witnessed the report, and asks him to take the material to the Embassy of France in La Paz. Minutos después, los oficiales bolivianos exigen la entrega del material filmado y Van Ryswick le entrega cassettes vírgenes.
Barbie is caught.Altmann does not exist: his traces identify him as Lyon's butcher.France asks Barbie extradition.Bolivia does not respond.
En mayo de 1972, como enviado especial de la revista Gente, Alfredo Serra llegó a la cárcel de La Paz para entrevistar a Barbie.Serra had started young in journalism, had worked in the mythical critic newspaper, had a dry, concise, of course, that did not rule out the emotion, with a broad and deep look, a photographic memory that then overturned in precise and thorough details. Fue, a su modo, un maestro de periodistas y llegó aquel día a La Paz junto a un maestro de la fotografía periodística, joven por entonces, Ricardo Alfieri, hijo.
The portrait that is fantastic of that day: it leaves it at the prison door "A green and complaining taxi", when he is about to meet Barbie, a brief personal reflection is allowed, almost an impromptu: "I do, I think, aI hope this noon ". Por fin, se enfrenta a Barbie, que tiene cincuenta y siete años, “Su cara sin afeitar está bronceada por el sol.It carries a thick yellow tricota with a high neck, very well cut brown pants, and brand new suede shoes ”.
Serra's questions lead Barbie for his life, for their crimes, for their feelings, for the life of their father, guerrilla in World War I, Barbie speaks, gets excited.What does it say?
Serra: Were you a theorist, a desktop commander, or a man of action?
Barbie: Si hubiera sido un comandante de escritorio no estaría aquí, en esta cárcel.I was absolutely!a man of action.
Serra: Now this question seems silly ... Is he repentant?
Barbie: ¿Por qué? ¿De qué? En la guerra todos matan.There are no good or evil.I'm a convinced Nazi.I admire Nazi discipline.I am proud to have been commander of the best body of the third Reich.And if I was born a thousand times, a thousand times it would be what I was.
Serra: Did you meet Hitler?
Barbie: Sí.I met him before the war, in 1936. Era un genio…
At one point in the talk, Barbie is pissed off with the memory of the Holocaust, Tore Serra who doesn't even flinch:
Barbie: ¡Por favor! No me salga con la novelita de los seis millones de judíos muertos…
Serra: Does the slaughter of Jews deny, the holocaust?
Barbie: No la niego.But I assure you that there were not six million.The story is written by those who win the war.
Serra: How many Jews did you order to kill?
Barbie: A ninguno.I had nothing to do with concentration camps or gas cameras. Yo fui jefe de un cuerpo especial entrenado para reprimir guerrillas.I must not be compared to Bormann, with Mengele, with none of them.
The interviewee lies.It is cynical.You cannot ignore that the number of Jewish dead at the hands of the Reich is not a novelite. Su jefe en las SS, Adolf Eichmann admitió en aquellos años que iba a “saltar a la fosa” contento porque llevaba en su conciencia cinco millones de muertos.
Serra appeals to Barbie's conscience:
Serra: but is accused of ordering the execution of more than twenty thousand men of the resistance.How do you feel like such a crime?
Barbie: Soy un soldado.I studied and trained for that.I am a SS.Do you know what an SS is?It's something like a superman.A professional chosen by Hitler.A fighter who was analyzed four generations of blood before conferring that honor.Or do you think any idiot can be a SS?I have law studies, philosophy ... (...) I was and I am still Nazi.I fought for Germany and I will die German.
After a one -hour talk, the photos show Serra in a pose that was very yours, tilted forward, the face for the interviewee, the time for the million million question is time.Barbie has already toured his past that he considers glorious, his homeland, his Hitler, his SS, his idea of German rebirth under a new national socialism.Before the farewell:
Serra: The accusation against you has eleven bodies.Twenty thousand executions, fifteen thousand deported French, torture ... Do you admit it?
Barbie: Lo admito.I don't know if the figures are exact, but it doesn't matter.They were normal acts in times of war.
That's: "I admit".
It was the only report that Barbie gave, as such, a journalist.It didn't need much more.But there was something else. Cuando Serra bajaba las escaleras hacia la salida, Barbie llamó su atención y le dijo: “Por favor, no me haga mucho daño”.The journalist later wrote: "I will never understand those seven words".
However, Barbie or continued in prison, nor was he extradited to France, who asked for it in 1974: Bolivia denied it because, he said, there was no treaty between the two countries.During the dictatorship of General García Meza, the so -called dictatorship of the Cocadollar. En 1982, con el regreso de Bolivia a la democracia, el gobierno de Hernán Siles Suazo arrestó a Barbie por estafa y lo deportó de inmediato a Francia.
There they were waiting for him.They prosecuted him in 1987, in Lyon.He was tried for crimes against humanity, for the deportation of civilians, of the forty -four Jewish boys and more than eighty people, members of the General Union of Israelis of France in Lyon, days before the entrance to the city of the troopsAllied: that deportation was known as "the last train". De todas formas, los testigos dejaron en claro por qué Barbie era conocido como “El carnicero de Lyon”.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment on July 4, 1987.He died of cancer at the Prison Hospital on September 25, 1991.
The journalist Ladislas of Hoyos was launched in 2000 to politics.He appeared as a candidate of a center -right party to the municipal elections of Seignosse: he won them.He was still mayor when he died, on December 8, 2011, at seventy -two years.
Journalist Alfredo Serra never left the profession. Trabajó en Infobae durante años.He died in Buenos Aires on October 22, 2020, at eighty -one years
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