Majority want Nazi dead — poll

Press, 11 February 1983, Page 6

Majority want Nazi dead — poll

, NZPA-Reuter Lyons The first public opinion poll since the forcible return to France of Klaus Barbie has shown a majority in favour of his execution if he is found guilty of wartime crimes against humanity. The poll, taken by the Ifres Organisation for the magazine, “V.5.D.,” comes after calls by some politicians for the return of the dea.th penalty, which was abolished in 1981. It said that 56 per cent of French men and women thought capital punishment should be restored for the former Gestapo officer who is in a Lyons jail awajting trial. The Government has already ruled out execution for Barbie, who was sentenced to death twice in absentia by France in the 1950 s for the killing and deportation of

thousands of Jews and members of the resistance in Lyons during World War 11. It said that Parliament had deliberately agreed not to make an exception of Barbie during the abolition debates. When the discussions took place Barbie appeared to be safe in his Bolivian exile, having defeated efforts by France and West Germany to secure his extradition. His expulsion from Bolivia last week-end has renewed the national debate about the death penalty and in Lyons, where Barbie enforced a reign of terror against resistance fighters and Jews, the issue has split the city. The Mayor, Mr Francisque Collomb, said: “Left to myself, I would wonder why a trial were necessary. Barbie deserves a bullet in the head. But abolition has been

decided and I do not see how it can be changed.” The city’s chief rabbi said that he did not. normally favour capital punishment but added: “In the case of war criminals and the extermination of populations, I believe it is necessary. Barbie’s execution would cause us no satisfaction but it would be just.”

Several French commentators have referred to the precedent of Israel’s execution of Adolf Eichmann in 1962 under a law which instituted the death penalty for him alone. But as the law stands, Barbie faces a maximum of life imprisonment if convicted of the charges. In Bonn a West German magazine yesterday quoted Barbie as saying that the French resistance hero, Jean Moulin, had committed suicide by smashing his own

skull against the wall of his prison cell. “The fact is that I did not kill him, as is always being written,” he said according to the magazine. “Stern.” “His hands were certainly tied, but not the feet. The guard wasn’t careful enough and he (Moulin) ... ran repeatedly against the wall and smashed in his entire skull. Naturally he died of his injuries,” Barbie was quoted as saying. “Stern” said that its reporter had interviewed Barbie several times in Bolivia before he was expelled to France.

“It was unbelievable,” Barbie said of Moulin’s death. He paid tribute to Moulin by saying: “The guy was all right. He was (just) on the wrong side — or I was on the wrong side.” “Stern” said that he had grinned as he said that.

Investigations into Barbie’s alleged war crimes focused yesterday on Izieu, a hamlet near Lyons, where 41 Jewish children were plucked from hiding in 1944 and sent to their deaths. A dossier compiled by a lawyer and Nazi-hunter, Serge Klarsfeld, and delivered to the examining magistrate. Christian Riss, alleges that Barbie headed the Gestapo unit which rounded up the children for deportation. Evidence gathered by Mr Clarsfeld includes a telegram to Gestapo headquarters in Paris which Barbie is alleged’ to have signed. It said: “Put an end this morning to the activities of the Jewish children’s centre at Izieu. A total of 41 children aged from three to 16 have been arrested. The Jewish personnel of 10 people including five women have also been arrested."