Arrest of Klaus Barbie in Bolivia: journalism is also a matter of tact

Bruno Donnet 09:45, 09 May 2023

Every day, Bruno Donnet dissects the media mechanics. This morning, the day after Jean Moulin's celebration, he wanted to tell us the story of one of the most beautiful shots in journalism and television.

Yesterday, Emmanuel Macron moved to the prison of Montluc, to pay tribute to one of the great heroes of the resistance: "Jean Moulin and six of his companions were arrested and incarcerated in Montluc. "

He recalled that it was there that Jean Moulin was tortured, to death, by Gestapo officers and, in his speech, the President of the Republic did not fail to mention a name: "Every day, the torture sessions inflicted by Klaus Barbie became more violent."

The name of Klaus Barbie who was therefore the executioner of Jean Moulin but also that of several thousand resistance fighters and deportees, Jews, during the occupation.

So when he heard about Klaus Barbie yesterday, Bruno Donnet wanted to tell the absolutely beautiful story that led to his arrest.

Because it was the cunning and stubbornness of a French television journalist, Ladislas de Hoyos, that made it possible to confuse Klaus Barbie.

After the war, Klaus Barbie fled to South America. After a short stay in Peru, he finally found refuge in Bolivia, in La Paz, where he lived for more than 20 years, under a false identity, that of a certain Klaus Altman.

But now, in 1972, a crazy rumor runs the Parisian newsrooms: Altman and Barbie would in fact be one and the same man and Barbie would therefore be in Bolivia.

After lengthy negotiations with the country's authorities, journalist Ladislas de Hoyos managed to land an interview with Klauss Altman. What for? Well, because Bolivia wants to twist the neck of this persistent rumor.

The conditions of the interview are draconian: the journalist has only a few minutes, he must submit his questions, beforehand, to the Ministry of the Interior and express himself exclusively in Spanish.

Ladislas de Hoyos executes and Mr. Klaus explains to him, straight in the eyes, what is important to him to say to French viewers: "I am not Barbie. I told you, I'm Klaus Altman. »

I'm not Barbie. I told you, I'm Klaus Altman.

However, taking his courage in both hands, Ladislas de Hoyos will thwart the Bolivian plan. He will disobey the instructions. And ask Klaus Altman, a little question in French: "Have you ever been to Lyon?"

And there, the one who is supposed to have never set foot in France and not to understand a traitor word of our language, will suddenly answer him, for tat: "I have never been to Lyon. "

I've never been to Lyon! Ouch.

Seeing the climate tense around him and the Bolivian authorities darken, Ladislas de Hoyos then relaxed the atmosphere by making Klaus Altman repeat other sentences, very much to his advantage in French: "I am not a murderer. I am not a murderer. I never tortured. I never tortured. »

But the best is yet to come. For Ladislaus de Hoyos has in fact fomented a stratagem, absolutely diabolical.

He took pictures with him. Pictures by Jean Moulin. He will then take them out of his pocket, hand them to Altman and ask him to grab them.

Altman complies, he takes the photos with full hands, says he has never seen Jean Moulin and returns his images to the journalist.

But now, by touching these photos, Altman has just deposited his fingerprints!

The trap of Ladislaus de Hoyos worked perfectly and closed on Klaus' fingertips.

On his return to France, the journalist will have the fingerprints analyzed by a lab that will conclude that Altman and Barbie are in fact one and the same man.

Journalism, dear Philippe, is also a matter of tact.