Quest for a Criminal

Of all the Nazi war criminals, few were more hated by the French than Klaus Barbie, former chief of the Gestapo in Lyon. In 1954 a French military court condemned him to death in absentia for killing the wartime underground leader Jean Moulin. Barbie then was living comfortably in West Germany and could not be extradited, because Germany, like most countries, does not allow the extradition of its own nationals. A few years later, Barbie disappeared.

The French are convinced that Barbie is alive and well--in the person of a wealthy naturalized Bolivian businessman named Klaus Altmann, who undeniably bears a strong resemblance to the missing Nazi (see cuts). Returning to La Paz from a trip to Peru two weeks ago, Altmann declared on Bolivian television that he had served with the SS in France and Holland and on the eastern front, but was not Barbie. Even though they tend to agree with French officers who insist that Altmann is Barbie, Bolivian authorities have not decided what to do about a French extradition request. But, in the meantime, they have jailed him on charges of owing $4,000 to the Bolivian Development Corporation--perhaps in order to prevent him from fleeing to a more secure sanctuary such as Paraguay.

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