Klaus Barbie and the United States Government

This is a reprint of the official U.S. Department of Justice report of 1983, giving a detailed history of the Klaus Barbie relationship with the U. S. government, and his criminal activities after the war. In the words of the Allan A. Ryan, Jr., then the Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, United States Department of Justice: "As the investigation of Klaus Barbie has shown, officers of the United States government were directly responsible for protecting a person wanted by the government of France on criminal charges and in arranging his escape from the law. As a direct result of that action, Klaus Barbie did not stand trial in France in 1950; he spent 33 years as a free man and a fugitive from justice, and the fact that he is awaiting trial today in France is due entirely to the persistence of the government of France and the cooperation of the present government of Bolivia."