Prosecutor Rips Barbie’s Defense : Rejects Claim That Ex-Nazi Didn’t Know of Holocaust

LYON, France —  Prosecuting attorney Pierre Truche, summing up the government’s case in the final week of the trial of Klaus Barbie, ridiculed the former Nazi Gestapo chief of Lyon on Monday for contending that he was a minor soldier who knew nothing about the extermination of Jews during World War II.

Truche, a 57-year-old, white-haired former magistrate who speaks softly without any attempt at histrionics, insisted that Nazi officers at Barbie’s level knew that deportation of Jews would lead to their extermination and that extermination was Adolf Hitler’s “final solution” for the Jews living in Germany and German-occupied territories.

“How could a man trained in intelligence services suggest he did not know?” asked Truche sarcastically. “How could Lyon have been different from any other place?”

Barbie, the 73-year-old former Gestapo lieutenant known as “the Butcher of Lyon” during World War II, was not in the courtroom to hear Truche. After replying to questions for three days after the trial opened on May 10, Barbie announced his refusal to attend any more sessions of the trial, contending that his expulsion from his haven in Bolivia to France in 1983 was illegal.

Barbie had taken refuge in Bolivia with the help of U.S. Army officers who employed and protected him after the war. Truche, in his summation, described this period as a moment in American history “with little glory.”

Appeared in Court Twice

On two occasions during the trial, Barbie was brought to court so witnesses could identify him. Otherwise, he has been allowed since May 13 to remain in prison without taking part in the trial.

Barbie faces the maximum sentence of life in prison for a series of what are legally described as “crimes against humanity”--the torture and deportation of several hundred Jews and French resistance fighters.

During the two days that he did reply to questions, Barbie contended that he was a minor officer in Lyon who had nothing to do with “the Jewish question.”

But Truche, in his summation, described Barbie as an energetic officer who ran the Gestapo and its campaigns against both the Resistance and Jews. Even when he first arrived in 1942 and was only second in command, Truche said, he was the real force behind the Gestapo in Lyon.

A panel of three judges and nine jurors, who have heard 105 witnesses in the case, are scheduled to begin deliberations on the verdict Friday. Under French law, a majority of eight out of the 12 votes is required for conviction, and a decision is expected Friday night.

Jacques Verges, Barbie’s well-known and controversial defense lawyer, will lead a team of two other lawyers in a summation of the defense beginning Wednesday.