6 • Friday, November 18, 1983
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the Vichy government led
by General Philippe Petain,
the hero of World War I.
Like the Nazis, the Vichy
saw the French Resistance
as a subversive force that
had to be destroyed. The
Vichy militia, the Milice,
and such right-wing groups
as the Parti Populaire
Francais (PPF), cooperated
with Barbie in crushing the
Resistance and persecuting
the Jews. The French col-
laborators, says the author,
often treated their own
countrymen even more vici-
ously than the Germans. He
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(Continued from Page 1)
quotes Barbie: "As a gen-
eral rule, the French per-
sonnel of my commando
were very faithful and dedi-
cated to Germany. We were
waging a common strug-
gle."
In compiling his re-
search, Murphy traveled
all over France inter-
viewing Resistance and
Jewish survivors of Bar-
bie's bloody reign in
Lyon, then went to Ger-
many to reconstruct
Barbie's earlier life as a
young Nazi. Through ex-
tensive interviews in
Bolivia and the United
States, he is able to tell
the story of Barbie's
postwar years as an in-
formant for the U.S.
Army Counter Intelli-
gence Corps.
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Murphy explains that
Barbie personally took part
in ruthless, inhumane in-
terrogations in which he
beat his Resistance and
Jewish prisoners. His base
of command was the Ecole
de Sante, a former military
hospital, which together
with Montluc prison made
up the Gestapo center of
Lyon. Through these cen-
ters, 10,000 prisoners were
processed, 7,000 of whom
died.
One of Barbie's greatest
coups was the tracking and
capture of the Resistance
leader of all France, Jean
Moulin, code named Max.
The torture of Moulin is de-
scribed by one of Moulin's
Resistance friends. "I heard
a stamping noise upstairs,
then the of someone
running down the stairs
while pulling a load that
was bouncing on the steps. I
looked up toward the stair-
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case that led to the second
story. Barbie, in shirt-.
sleeves, was dragging a
man by the feet." It was
Moulin.
"The prisoner's face was
swollen, and his jacket was
in shreds. Barbie used the
whip, the truncheon, and
his favorite weapon, his own
fists."
The torture went on
and on, but Moulin never
talked. He died on July 8,
1943. Barbie had gotten
his man, but too late. By
June 1943, De Gaulle's
resistance movement had
been fully organized by
the courageous Moulin
and was securely in
place, ready- to back the
Allied landing that was to
come a year later.
gation during a Friday
night service injuring a
number of people. Rabbi
Jacob Kaplan, who headed
the Quai Tilsitt Synagogue
at the time, believes the
survival of the congregation
was a case of "divine provi-
dence."
The members were wor-
shipping, as usual, with
their backs to the door, but
the assassin entered just at
the point in the service
when the congregation was
supposed to turn toward the
door for 30 seconds. As they
did, they faced the Milice
trooper, who, grenades in
hand, became flustered as
he saw the worshippers
watching him. He hastily
threw the grenades into a
corner. Had the congrega-
tion not turned, says Kap-
lan, they would have all
been killed.
Murphy shows how Bar-
bie tortured French men
and women who were Resis-
tance fighters, and under
Kaplan, 88, is now the
threat of death, forced some Grand Rabbi of. France
of them to "turn" and work and living in Paris. Dur-
for him as Gestapo double ing the war, he was in-
agents. It was through this strumental in convincing
technique that Barbie even- Cardinal Pierre Gerlier
tually captured not only of Lyon, head of the
Moulin, but General French Catholic Church,
Charles Delestraint, the to help the Jews. Despite
head of De Gaulle's Secret Gerlier's pro-Vichy sen-
Army.
timents and his close re-
The author also covers lationship with Marshal
the unusual-situation of the Petain, he showed ex-
Jewish community of Lyon traordinary courage in
during Barbie's reign. The opposing Vichy persecu-
head of the SS Jewish Sec- tion of the Jews.
tion, Erich Bartelmus, who
Speaking of Kaplan's con-
served a term in jail but is frontation with Gerlier,
now free, reported to Barbie Murphy says, "After an
in the Gestapo chain of hour and a half of intense
command. Most of Barbie's discussion the Cardinal
activities involved the Re= sent a pastoral letter to all
sistance, but he also per- the churches of the region,
sonally took part in the per- explaining what was hap-
secution of the local Jewish pening to the Jews and in-
population.
structing them to take a
Barbie raided the head- position against it." Gerlier
quarters of a Jewish relief also sheltered the then-
organization in Lyon, Grand Rabbi of France,
UGIF, where he arrested 80 Isaie Schwarz, who was
people who had come there wanted by the Gestapo, and
for aid. Most were sent to he hid 60 Jewish children.
death camps in the east.
As the Allies entered
On another occasion, Lyon in August 1944, Bar-
Barbie raided a Jewish bie and the Germans fled.
orphanage in Izieu, in At the war's end Barbie was
southern France, which stationed in northwest
had been safe in an area Germany, where as an SS
occupied by the Italians. officer, he knew he would
When the Italians capitu- have to go underground to
lated, Barbie took over escape arrest.
According to Barbie, "I
Izieu and sent all the
children to concentration took refuge in a village
camps, where all of them called Classonnette where I
were killed. A telegram to had to work hard . . . Six
SS headquarters signed months later, I got to know a
by Barbie confirming the young carpenter and we set
raid on Izieu will be used up a secret organization to
as evidence against him forge documents." Barbie
was now employing the tac-
at his trial.
The author has uncovered tics used by the French Re-
an unusual situation that sistance members he had
existed in wartime Lyon, once pursued.
During this time Barbie
where in spite of the con-
tinuous arrests of Jewish used a number of aliases,
citizens, religious life was until the summer of 1946
maintained - for sometime. when he was arrested by
The Quai Tilsitt Synagogue the U.S. Army Counter
in Lyon was the last syna- Intelligence Corps (CIC).
gogue still open in He quickly escaped, as he
German-occupied Europe. did when he was arrested
It was finally closed on June again by the Brittish.
15, 1944, after the Allied
With the threat of Com-
invasion of Normandy, munism now looming larger
when it was raided by Bar- than the Nazis during this
bie's Gestapo police.
postwar period, Barbie of-
The synagogue was" fered his services to the CIC,
harassed from time to time the same people who were
during the war. At one point seeking his arrest. Working
a French Fascist Milice for the Americans as an in-
telligence informant, Bar-
trooper threw a grenade
into the midst of the congre-
(Continued on Page 7)