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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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German legal system. "After all," he said, "I did not
do anything but apply the law in the Barbie case."
Rabl then put me in
touch with Peter Nischk, a Munich friend of Herbert John. When I telephoned
Nischk I discovered that John believed the man in the group picture was Theodor
Dannecker, the head of the Gestapo's Bureau for Jewish Affairs and one of
Eichmann's best assistants.
If John thought the man in the picture was
Dannecker, then the actual man must have been known for a long time in La Paz
and also in Lima, which he frequently visited, as a Nazi criminal who had been
active in France. John managed to get a picture of him, for Barbie had been in
Lima since the previous month, October.
On December 28, Nischk sent me
Barbie's current name and address: "Klaus Altmann, c/o Fritz Schwend, Santa
Clara (via Lima), Casilla No. 1, Carretera Central, km 14."
For several
days I had been carefully watching the newspapers for mention of Bolivia and
Peru. On the previous evening I had clipped from Le Monde the following
information:
An official French delegation arrived in
Lima on Monday, December 27, headed by Jean Jurgensen, director of political
matters on the Quai d'Orsay, and consisting of twelve government officials. On
Tuesday and Wednesday, December 28 and 29, it will discuss with the Peruvian
government such unresolved problems of the two governments as technical and
economic cooperation, Peru's foreign debt, and especially the resumption in
1972 by the French of atomic tests on Mururoa atoll in the South Pacific. The
Lima government had threatened to break off relations with France last August,
when Paris announced a nuclear explosion for September that was subsequently
cancelled.... We think the much more intelligent attitude France has taken in
the last months in respect to the Peruvian debt accounts for the easing of the
political situation.
Consequently, I learned at the same
moment that Barbie was in Lima and that France was trying to appease Peru about
nuclear testing. The situation was hardly in our favor. Nevertheless, on
December 30, Serge telephoned General Bourdis, the Prime Minister's chief of
staff, who had been Serge's superior in the Army Ministry in 1961 and 1962,
when Serge was doing his military service. Serge gave him all the details we
had just received about Barbie and also talked with one of his staff advisers.
Serge told the adviser that he knew of two factors, one of which would
help the extradition of Barbie, and the other, not: The first
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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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Page 246 |
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