Beate and Serge Klarsfeld the Nazi hunters who last year located Klaus Barbie, the “butcher of Lyons,” have tracked down the former head of the Paris Gestapo, Heinrich Illers. At a press conference here, Mr. and Mrs. Klarsfeld accused Illers of the death of 116 wartime hostages, shot in Bordeaux and Paris on Sept. 21, 1942. They also blamed him for the “death train” which deported 2166 persons from France to Germany on July 2, 1944.
Mrs. Klarsfeld turned over to French military courts her documentation concerning Illers, who, by coincidence, resigned several days ago from his post as Senate President of the State Social Court in Celle, Germany. At a press conference Tuesday in Bonn, the Klarsfelds disclosed a list of 250 war criminals whose extradition they seek under the Franco-German agreement of Feb. 2, 1971. At that press conference, Serge Klarsfeld was arrested by Cologne police for his participation in an alleged kidnapping attempt last year of an ex-Nazi. Klarsfeld was released a few hours later on $5000 bail.
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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.