Inventory of the Klaus Barbie pre-trial records
Finding aid prepared by Josh Giglio
Hoover Institution Library and Archives
© 2008, 2014
434 Galvez Mall
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6003
hoover-library-archives@stanford.edu
Title: Klaus Barbie pre-trial records
Date (inclusive): 1943-1985
Collection Number: 95008
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material: In French and German
Physical Description:
8 manuscript boxes
(3.2 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Trial instruction, including depositions and exhibits, in the case of Klaus Barbie before the Tribunal de grande instance
de Lyon, relating to German war crimes in France during World War II. Photocopy.
Creator:
Barbie, Klaus, 1913-1991
Creator:
France. Tribunal de grande instance de Lyon
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Access
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual
or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
Use
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Acquisition Information
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 1995.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Klaus Barbie pre-trial records, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Location of Originals
Originals in: Tribunal de grande instance, Lyon, France.
Biographical / Historical
Born to a Roman Catholic family in Bad Godesberg, Germany, Klaus Barbie joined the SS (Schutzstaffel) in September 1935. By
1940, he was posted to Holland, where his main task was to arrest Jews and German émigrés. In 1942, Barbie arrived in recently
captured Lyon as head of the Gestapo, commanding a force of 25 officers. There, Barbie prevented sabotage and persecuted Jews,
for which he was presented the military award "First Class Iron Cross with Swords" by Adolf Hitler.
After the war, Barbie escaped prosecution in France and relocated to Bolivia in 1950. He lived in Bolivia as a businessman
until 1983, when the Bolivian government extradited Barbie to France to stand trial for war crimes. In 1987 Klaus Barbie was
sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity. Nine jurors and three judges found Barbie, known as the "Butcher
of Lyon" guilty of the 341 separate charges that were brought against him at the court in Lyon. He died of cancer in 1991
while in prison.
Scope and Content of Collection
The trial records for the head of the Gestapo in Lyon include trial instruction, depositions, and exhibits in the case of
Klaus Barbie before the Tribunal de grande instance in Lyon, relating to German war crimes in France during World War II.
Photocopy.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
War crime trials -- France
box 1, folder 1
Introductory indictment
October 9, 1981
box 1, folder 2
Verbal Trial, in French
May 28, 1984
box 1, folder 3
Verbal Trial, copies in German
November 1982
box 1, folder 4
Letter of instruction for the judge
March 17, 1983
box 1, folder 5
Final indictment
July 15, 1985
box 2, folder 1
Special hearing of Ferdinand Palk
December 1964
Lischka, Hagen, and Heinrichsohn trial proceedings
February 1982
Summary
Kurt Lischka was the head of the Gestapo in Cologne in 1940, and in 1943 he became chief of the department overseeing internment
camps and executions. In 1971, Serge Klarsfeld, a French/Jewish lawyer and holocaust survivor, found Lischka living in Cologne,
West Germany and by the late 1970s he and his wife Beate were able to get him to trial. Herbert-Martin Hagen was a personal
assistant to the SS police chief in France and head of a department in the Paris Gestapo, and Ernst Heinrichsohn worked in
the Gestapo's Jewish affairs department in Paris. Both were integral parts of Lischka's work, and both were arrested in 1980.
These records are the proceedings from the trial.
box 2, folder 2-4
Indictment against Lischka, Hagen, and Heinrichsohn
February 1982
box 3
Judgment of the Lischka, Hagen, and Heinrichsohn case, in French and German
February 1982
box 2, folder 5
Report to the U.S. Attorney General
August 1983
Summary
Report to the Attorney General regarding the status of the investigations and proceedings in the Klaus Barbie trial.
box 6, folder 1
Rogatory letters, in French and German
1982 - 1984
Scope and Contents note
Rogatory Letters for evidence requests from the French to the Germans, as well as services of process from the Germans to
the French with regards to the Klaus Barbie investigation.
box 4
Rogatory letters, in French and German
1982-1984
box 5
Rogatory letters, in French and German
1982 - 1984
Scope and Contents note
Rogatory Letters for evidence requests from the French to the Germans, as well as services of process from the Germans to
the French with regards to the Klaus Barbie investigation.
box 6, folder 2-4
Gendarmerie Nationale witness hearings and statements
February 1983 - May 1984
Summary
Interviews and hearings conducted by the national police force of France on witnesses involved in the Klaus Barbie investigation.
box 7, folder 2
Inventory record of proceedings against Klaus Barbie and Knob Werner
March 1981
box 7, folder 3
Information regarding the raid of the general union of Jews in France
December 1984
Summary
Information regarding the Gestapo actions to hunt down French Jews in their streets and houses with intentions of sending
them to concentration camps or extermination sites.
box 7, folder 1
Military intelligence summary of the investigation against Klaus Barbie
April 1980
box 7, folder 4
Final witness hearings and statements
1985
box 8, folder 1
"Activities of Jewish Organisations in France During the Occupation"
1947
box 8, folder 2
"Les Fils et Filles des Deportes Juifs de France" and Serge Klarsfeld
1943, 1946, 1981
Summary
Serge Klarsfeld founded the association of "Sons and Daughters of Jewish Deportees from France" in 1979, consisting of descendants
of French-Jews who endured concentration camps during World War II. These files contains publications written in conjunction
with the organization.
box 8, folder 3
"Memorial of the Deportation of French Jews" by Serge Klarsfeld
1978
