On this day in military history....in 1983

On this day in military history....in 1983. Klaus Barbie, the "Butcher of Lyons" is arrested in Bolivia for crimes against humanity and deported to France. Klaus Barbie was the Nazi Gestapo chief for the city of Lyons in France during World War II. He tortured to death of Jean Moulin, the highest-ranking member of the French resistance captured during World War II. In all, he was responsible for 4,300 murders, the deportation of 7,500 people and the arrest and torture of 14,300 resistance fighters.

After the war, he was employeed by the British and American intelligence services. In 1955, he fled to Bolivia where he was found by Nazi hunters in 1971. However, it wasn't until a new government took over in Bolivia that he was deported to France to stand trial for his crimes. His trial defense was that the Jews and the French were also guilty of the same crimes as the Nazis. In 1987, he was sentenced to life in prison (France's highest punishment) where he died in 1991.

It is easy to see just how much a country values innocent lives when they "award" the sentence of "life in prison" on someone like Klaus Barbie. If they had captured Hitler and put him on trial, they probably would have also sentenced him to life in prison. I guess there is no crime in France that is grave enough for the death sentence.