Letters: Barbie's Crimes

Klaus Barbie's trial ((WORLD, May 25)) is an affront to the memories of the millions who perished at the hands of the Nazis. His contemptuous refusal to face the people he tortured makes a mockery of the dignified treatment and justice now being given him. After all, how many of the Nazis' victims were tried as humanely as Barbie?

Alnoor Ladha

Nairobi, Kenya

I do not agree with the comment made by former French Health Minister Simone Veil ((May 18)) that equating Barbie's crimes against the French underground with his other crimes "is the banalization of everything that happened." An atrocity is an atrocity, whether it is the sending of innocent people to death camps or the torture-murder of Jean Moulin, the French Resistance fighter. The lives lost in the death camps should not be elevated to a status above that of Moulin and others murdered by the Nazis. Recognizing Barbie's responsibility for non-Holocaust atrocities in no way trivializes the role he played in the Holocaust.

Timothy J. Sugrue

Branford, Conn.

I am a French citizen and the son of a Resistance fighter. I was appalled to read that there is concern about grouping the Jewish victims together with the Resistance fighters. Barbie killed, tortured and deported many non-Jewish French in the same cruel manner as he did the Jews.

Emmanuel Tissot

Charlotte, Vt.