France The Butcher of Lyons in the Dock

Klaus Barbie goes on trial for crimes against humanity

For four years the old Nazi has paced his solitary, maximum-security cell in St. Joseph prison, just a few hundred yards from the site of his Gestapo headquarters in Lyons during World War II. Garrulous by nature, he is prevented from speaking to anyone except his round-the-clock French guards, his lawyer and a 46-year-old daughter who visits once a month. But for Klaus Barbie, an uncomfortable isolation is about to turn into an even more uncomfortable spectacle. This week the wartime head of the Gestapo in France's third largest city, who became infamous as the "Butcher of Lyons," goes on trial...

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