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...