The State Security Court sentenced to death Jean Barbier, a French national who was a Gestapo official during the occupation of France and who was charged with torture and murder of hundreds of Jews and anti-Nazis. Condemned to death in absentia after France’s liberation, Barbier lived peacefully for years in Marseilles under an assumed name.
In 1961 a police probe of charges of brutality a 13-year-old girl filed against him disclosed his identity but a Marseilles military tribunal accorded him “provisional liberty.” Apparently fearing that survivors might kill him, Barbier asked for and received imprisonment in Marseilles.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.