invasion of the Low Countries, where his responsibilities included the
deportation of Jews. Even more significant was his transfer to Lyon, a
major refugee center, after the reoccupation of the south of France in
November 1942. Based at Hôtel Terminus in Lyon, Barbie developed
an extensive informer network aimed at disrupting resistance activities
and continuing the deportation of Jews. Known for his brutal methods,
he gained particular notoriety because of the torture and execution of
resistance leader Jean Moulin. Barbie was personally awarded the Iron
Cross First Class with Swords by Adolf Hitler.
In spring 1947, hiding in Munich because he was a declared war
criminal, Barbie applied for a position with the U.S. Counterintelli-
gence Corps under an assumed name. For the next three years, work-
ing from a safe house in Augsburg, he helped direct operations in-
volving former SS officers, French intelligence, and Soviet activities
in the Soviet and U.S. zones in Germany. Not only was knowledge of
his employment kept from French and American authorities, but Bar-
bie was resettled under the name Klaus Altmann in Bolivia in 1951.
When the French government learned of his presence there in 1972
and requested his extradition, the Bolivian government declined to
act. Eleven years later, however, a new regime in Bolivia—coupled
with a different administration in Washington, D.C.—complied with
the request of the French (the German government refused to try
him because of the presumed weakness of its legal case). The United
States conducted a full-scale investigation of the relationship with
Barbie and sent an official apology to the French government. Al-
though Barbie had been tried twice in absentia in Lyon and sentenced
to death, a statute of limitations had annulled those rulings. His new
trial in 1987 for “crimes against humanity” resulted in a sentence of
life imprisonment, as France had abolished the death penalty. Barbie
died of cancer on 25 September 1991.BARCZATIS, HELENE (1912–1955). One of the most prized infor-
mants in the German Democratic Republic working for the Organi-
sation Gehlen (OG), Helene (Elli) Barczatis was born in Berlin and
held several clerical positions before her appointment as personal
secretary to Minister-President Otto Grotewohl in April 1950. The
previous year, she had become acquainted with Karl Laurenz, a
lawyer and Social Democrat whose criticism of the ruling commu-
BARCZATIS, HELENE • 19