BARBIE' S CONNECTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100370052-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 28, 2010
• Sequence Number: 52
• Publication Date: July 3, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/28: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100370052-5
ARTICLE A~ c' ::. k )
_
ON PAGE______
WASHINGTON POST
3 Tuly 1983
Barbie's Connection
Tom Bower is deputy editor of the British Sibert was deeply suspicious of the
Broadcasting Corp.'s 'Panorama' program. Russians, a view not wholly shared by his
This is the first-of three articles adapted from superiors at the time, the summer of 1945.
his forthcoming book, "Barbie: Butcher of Gehlen was taken to Washington for exten-
Lyon,' to be published in the United States sive interrogations at the War Department.
by the Pantheon Press. The department subsequently informed Si-
By Tom Bower bert by telex that Germans were not to be
used to gather intelligence about the Rus-
Klaus Barbie began working for the Counter sians.
Intelligence Corps of the U.S. Army in the. Sibert ignored that directive. It was the
spring of 1947. He remained on the Army's ? Army's vie, in Europe that such intelligence
payroll as an intelligence agent-until early 1951
when he was smuggled out of Germany to Gen- was needed and that only experienced Ger-
oa, Italy, with the help of CIC and the Central
Intelligence Agency. From Genoa, Barbie made
his way with his family to Bolivia where he
prospered as a businessman. _.In February of
this year he was arrested and extradited to
France to stand trial for "crimes: against hu-
manity."
This is the story of his American connection.
It is based on interviews with several of-the
Americans directly involved with him, on his-
torical records of CIC operations in Germany
at the end of World _War 11 and on records
deposited in the national archives of France.
During the German occupation of France,
Barbie was the Gestapo chief at Lyon where,
according to French indictments, be ordered
and participated in numerous atrocities-mur-
ders and acts of torture-inflicted on Jews and
members of the French resistance. In the face
of the Allied advance in 1944, he fled to Ger-
many and turned up in 1947 in Bavaria. He -
was spotted there one day, standing on a
railroad platform in Augsburg, by Kurt Merk
who had spent the war in Dijon, France, as a
member of the Abwehr, the intelligence arm
of the German army.
hierk already had an American con-
nection. It came about in this way. Soon af-
ter the German. surrender, Reinhard Gehlen
-the head of Fremde Heere Ost, the sec-
tion of the German General Staff which,
through the Abwehr, specialized in eastern
Europe-made a deal with an American in-
telligence officer, Gen. Edwin Sibert, to hand
over to the Americans all his invaluable
records.
mans could provide it.
A recruitment effort was launched. Kurt
Merk was signed on in April, 1946, by an
officer of the 970th Counter Intelligence
Corps Detachment, Robert Taylor, who now
lives in Syracuse, N.Y.
The CIC's mission at war's end had been
thoughtfully considered during the months
before the D-day landings and was detailed
by Allied headquarters in handbooks and
numerous briefing papers. That mission was
to spearhead the demilitarization and dena-
zification of Germany. CIC was under orders
to arrest any German who might pose a
threat to the Allied occupation, arrest nearly
all Nazi Party officials and any member of a
paramilitary 'force which was part of the
Nazi regime.
Within, a year this task was largely accom-
plished and a new mission for CIC rapidly
evolved. The divisions in Germany between
the Russians and the other Allies had hard-
ened. The Cold War had begun. Former al-
lies had become enemies and German ene-
mies had become friends. There was now a
place for Germans in the CIC's scheme of
things. .
Merk became a valued and trusted CIC
informant in the year before he spotted Bar-
bie at the railroad station. After their chance
meeting, he persuaded Barbie to join him in
this new career.
Barbie's interview for the job took place at
an office of the 970th CIC at the small Ba-
varian town of Kempten, 60 miles from
Munich. Barbie was hired in April, 1947,
with the approval of a regional CIC officer,
Dale Garvey, who now lives in Kansas. Bar-
bie's first handler was a young CIC officer,
Robert Taylor. Today, Taylor and Garvey
claim to have no specific recollection of Bar-
bie.
JMvz4vvF_D.
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/28: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100370052-5