In July 1987, Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, known as the 'Butcher of Lyon', was sentenced to life in prison by a French court for crimes against humanity. Barbie, as Gestapo chief in Lyon during World War Two, was responsible for torturing and killing prisoners, sending 7,500 French Jews and Resistance fighters to concentration camps, and executing 4,000 more.
After the war, Barbie was hired by US intelligence as an informant and shielded from prosecution. In 1951, he fled to South America via 'The Ratline', a US-facilitated escape route for Nazis. He lived openly in Bolivia for decades, where he was linked to the country's cocaine trade and the 1980 'Cocaine Coup' that brought dictator Luis García Meza to power.
Barbie was eventually tracked down by Nazi hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, and extradited to France in 1983. His trial reopened painful memories of French collaboration with the Nazis, as many French citizens had betrayed each other during the occupation.
Resistance fighter Raymond Basset, who was tortured by Frenchmen working for the Gestapo, said: 'At the time of the liberation of Lyon, there were about 6,000 members of the Resistance movement in the area. Three days afterwards, there was 110,000. That probably explains a lot of things about French life today.'
