The investigation to determine the identity of a man in Bolivia believed to be the fugitive Nazi Klaus Barbie was taken over today by a delegation of French military judges headed by Jean Claude Perioer, director general of the Defense Ministry. They will go to Munich Wednesday to receive from West German Attorney General Ludolph documents that may prove that Klaus Altmann, a Bolivian citizen now in a La Paz jail on charges of business fraud, is the notorious Gestapo “butcher of Lyons” responsible for the mass deportation of French Jews in World War II and the murder of the French resistance hero, Jean Moulin.
The search for Barbie was conducted unofficially until now by Mrs. Beate Klarsfeld, a German married to a French Jew who visited Bolivia last week. Her efforts prompted the French government to request the extradition of the man believed to be Barbie, who, up to Jan. 26 was living in Peru. A positive identification of the man as Barbie would pave the way for his extradition.
Meanwhile, Raymond Aubrac, a French-Jewish civil servant and World War II resistance leader announced today that he would go anywhere in the world to serve as a witness against Barbie. Aubrac, who is director of the Rome bureau of the Food and Agricultural Organization, said he had been personally interrogated by Barbie in June. 1943 when he fell into Gestapo hands. Aubrac was rescued when an underground commando unit headed by his wife stormed the police car that was transferring him from one prison to another.
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