Klaus Barbie: The Butcher of Lyons

The story of infamous Nazi Klaus Barbie is both a thriller and a tragedy, especially when reflecting on the victims (Jews and Resistants) that suffered under his jurisdiction (and often by his own hands). This book, written by an established jornalist and producer in this field of history, chronicles the life of Barbie, from his birth in 1913 to his capture and return to France in 1983 to face justice. In 1942, with the Allied invasions of Morocco and Algeria, Nazi Germany finally began to feel the momentum of defeat looming ahead. France, having been divided into two distinct zones, the Occupied in the north, and Vichy in the south, was placed entirely under the jurisdiction of the Germans, who still saw France as a military asset. Because of the growing underground resistance movements that were sabotaging or ambushing German patrols and supplies, the Nazi secret police (the Gestapo) sent SS First Lieutenant Klaus Barbie to Lyons, France, to quash the Resistance. Because the Nazi vision of war was one against all "Enemies of the State," Barbie's other "assignment" was to rid Lyons of Jews. Thousands of people, including 44 innocent Jewish children at a refuge in the village of Izieu, and the "Resistance martyr" Jean Moulin, were slaughtered, the former being sent to the gas chambers of Auschwitz and Moulin being beaten literally to a pulp in the labrynth of Montluc Prison before being left to die. Following the war, Barbie remained in hiding, having been recruited by the American CIC (predecessor to the CIA) to fight off communist movements and organizations in Bavaria, and was later packed off to Bolivia with his family, after the Americans began taking a lot of heat from an enraged French government, demanding his return to the scene of his crimes. Bolivia became his safehouse, where Barbie remained until 1983, when he was finally extradited to France to face charges of crimes against humanity. Tom Bower's enthralling and equally informative account in this book will leave your mind filled to the brim with info on one of the most infamous Nazis ever to emerge from the theory and practice of Nazism. I highly reccomend it: thoroughly researched and well-written, Bower's book remains the definitive of its kind!