Klarsfeld Denies That He and His Wife Hired a Terrorist to Kill Barbie

Nazi-hunter Serge Klarsfeld has emphatically denied that he and his wife, Beate, had hired a terrorist known as Juan Carlos in 1982 to assassinate former gestapo commander Klaus Barbie who was living at the time under the protection of the Bolivian government.

The allegation that the Klarsfelds had targeted Barbie, now awaiting trial in a Lyon prison for crimes against humanity, appears in an article in the February edition of Life magazine. According to Life, the Klarsfelds acted out of frustration that their 10-year attempt to bring Barbie to justice had made no progress.

Klarsfeld, a lawyer, admitted that he had contacted Carlos and paid for his trip to Bolivia, but not with instructions to murder Barbie. He did not explain what Carlos’ mission to Bolivia was or when he was recalled. Life described Carlos as a known terrorist, “a Bolivian socialist of Indian extraction.”

Klarsfeld, who is Jewish, and his German-born wife have been instrumental in trucking down many wanted Nazi war criminals all over the world. As early as 1972 they identified Barbie, the wartime Gestapo chief in Lyon, who was living in Bolivia under the alias Klaus Altmann.

According to Life, they called off the alleged assassination after a change of government in Bolivia resulted in Barbie’s expulsion from that country early in 1983. He was immediately seized by French authorities and confined to the same prison in Lyon where he and his henchmen once tortured and murdered members of the French resistance and Jews. Barbie is held responsible for the deportaion of most Jews in Lyon to Nazi death camps.

Barbie is expected to go on trial later this year. The French investigating magistrate, Christian Riss, reported last week that he had completed his report on Barbie’s wartime activities and turned it over to the prosecutor who will formulate specific charges against Barbie.