One of the most notorious figures in the Nazi hierarchy and one who attracted almost as much attention as Adolf Eichmann in the post-war period was Klaus Barbie, the “Butcher of Lyon.”
Born on October 25, 1913, Klaus (born Nikolaus Barbie) grew up in Godesburg, today a part of Bonn. His father returned from WWI a disillusioned abusive alcoholic with a hatred of the French. At age 10 Barbie was sent to boarding school where he was grateful to be away from his violent father. He had shown an interest in theology from an early age and was planning to study it, but his father died in 1933. Unemployed, he was conscripted into the Nazi Labour Service, the Reichsarbeitsdienst. Hitler had just seized power, and Germany was in turmoil.
In 1935 Barbie joined the SS working in the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the sister organization of the infamous Gestapo.
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