Barbie ‘denies torture’

Press, 14 March 1983, Page 9

Barbie ‘denies torture’

NZPA Lyons The former Nazi Gestapo chief, Klaus Barbie, has denied any involvement in torture, murder and the deportation of Jews and World War II Resistance fighters to concentration camps, according to purported excerpts of a prison interview published yesterday. “Le Proges de Lyons,” generally viewed as a responsible newspaper, published portions of what it said had been a February 24 interview of Barbie by a local investigating magistrate, Christian Kiss. A State prosecutor, Jean Berthier, issued a statement

later saying that none of the quotes attributed to Barbie had been furnished to the newspaper by Mr Riss or any other court official. He did not deny the story’s authenticity. “I never had anything to do with the deportation of Jews to Germany,” the paper quoted Barbie as saying. “My specific functions were the struggle against the Resistance.” Barbie, known as the “Butcher of Lyons,” served as Nazi security police chief in France from 1942 to 1944. He was extradited from Bolivia early last month and jailed pending trial for

crimes against humanity. “I did not know what was going on in concentration camps,” he was quoted as saying. “You know that many people (inmates) came back from them. Personally, I had nothing to do with the deportation of Jews to Germany. There were two or three officers in the S.D. (SS. security branch) responsible for that question. “It is certainly possible that I myself interrogated people. But that was my job because it concerned important members of the Resistance. I don’t remember personally having tortured the prisoners.”