Nikolaus Barbie (25 October 1913 â 25 September 1991) was a German operative of the SS and SD who worked in Vichy France during World War II. He became known as the “Butcher of Lyon” for having personally tortured prisonersâprimarily Jews and members of the French Resistanceâas the head of the Gestapo in Lyon. After the war, United States intelligence services, which employed him for his anti-Marxist efforts, aided his escape to Bolivia, where he advised the regime on how to repress opposition through torture.
In 1983, the newly elected democratic government of Hernán Siles Zuazo in Bolivia arrested Barbie in La Paz on the pretext of his owing the government US$10,000 for goods he was supposed to have delivered but did not. A few days later, the government delivered him to France to stand trial.
On 4 July 1987, Barbie was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in prison in Lyon four years later of leukemia and spine and prostate cancer at the age of 77.
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