BARBIE CALLED ONE OF MANY EX-NAZIS AIDED BY U.S.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100370090-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 28, 2010
• Sequence Number: 90
• Publication Date: February 20, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/28: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100370090-3
ARTI CIS LPP
ON PAGE
NEW YORK TINBS
20 FEBRUARY 1983
Barbie Called One ofMany Ex-Naziis Aided by U.S.
By Reuters
Klaus Barbie, the Gestapo official,
was just one of a number of former
Nazis protected by United States agen-
cies in exchange for their knowledge of
Soviet activities or other expertise, ac-
cording to American investigators.
These Germans were used by Amen-
-can intelligence agencies as inform-
ants, as consultants on foreign policy
decisions and as scientists and techni-
cians, the investigators say.
.`Whether we are comfortable with it
or not, we are dealing with something
that is on the public record," said Mar-
-tin Mendelsohn, a former investigator
of war criminals in the Justice Depart-
ment and now a Washington lawyer for meet agencies in avoiding prosecution.
the Simon Wiesenthal Holocaust Cen- "The Barbie allegations are not new,
ter, which is based in Los Angeles. in the sense of the involvement of the
George F. Kennan, the historian and U.S. Government with ex-Nazis and
former diplomat, said one of the Nazis war criminals," she said. "It is a sordid
brought to the United States after World part of this country's past."
War II was Gustav Hilger, Hitler's Erhard Dabringhaus, a former mili-
Deputy Foreign Minister. tary intelligence officer who said he
"We were very glad he was here be- paid Mr. Barbie $1,700 a month as an in-
cause he had a tremendous knowledge formant, said his superiors were aware
about the Soviet Union," Mr. Kerman of Mr. Barbie's background.
said. "We brought him here because we "People were making conscious and
were worried that, if we didn't, the Sovi- knowledgeable decisigns based on the
ets would get him." political climate at the time," Mr. Men-
Mr. Kerman first met Mr. Hilger delsohn of the Wiesenthal Center said.
ter Joachim Ribbentrop.
While Mr. Kennan referred to Mr.
Hilger, now dead, as "a very decent
man" and, to his knowledge, as not
guilty of any war crimes, Charles Allen
Jr., an experts on war criminals, has
written that, after Mr. Hilger returned
to Berlin from Moscow, he became "the
liaison between Ribbentrop's office and
the SS Einsatzgruppen, or 'Special Task
Forces,' which murdered some 1.4 mil-
lion Soviet Jews on the Eastern Front."
In his 1963 book "Nazi War Criminals
Among Us," Mr. Allen wrote that Mr.'
Hilger had been paid by the Central In-
telligence Agency and by the State De-
partment as a consultant.
Mr. Kennan said he was unaware of
any payments made to Mr. Hilger by
the United States Government. .
A 1978 report by the General Account
ing Office, the investigative arm of Con-
gress, said the C.I.A. had sought assist-
ance from some 22 former Nazis living
in the United States after World War II.
The report referred to payments
made to an unidentified "senior official
of the German Foreign Ministry during
the Nazi era" who was an expert on
Soviet affairs.
Elizabeth Holtzman, the Brooklyn
District Attorney, who pressed for the
prosecution of war criminals while a
member of Congress in the 1970's, said 4
that many of the people listed by the
G.A.O. had been assisted by Govern-
while they were serving at their respec-
tive embassies in Moscow in the 1930's.
Mr. Hilger later returned to Berlin,
where he served under Foreign Minis-
After the war 1,500 Austrian and Ger-
man scientists, including Wernher von
Braun, the space pioneer, were brought
to the United States. Mr. Allen said
most could not be termed war crimi-
nals, but one, Walter Schreiber, was
convicted in absentia by a Polish tribu-
nal of conducting medical experiments
in the Auschwitz death camp.
Mr. Allen obtained a formerly secret
memorandum between the Army
Counter Intelligence Corps and Air
Force intelligence indicating that the
authorities had arranged for Mr.
Schreiber's resettlement in Argentina.
Further research showed that he
moved to Paraguay in 1952, Mr. Allen
said.
Congressional committees have been
looking into the matter and their in-
quiry has been given further impetus by
the Barbie case.
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/28: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100370090-3