Hotel Terminus, written and directed by Marcel Ophuls

Hotel Terminus, written and directed by Marcel Ophuls

Hotel Terminus is the compelling story of the war criminal Klaus Barbie, but it is such a complex narrative that it also involves the CIA, Bolivian and other officials, newspapermen, associates of the Nazi killer, members of the French Resistance and hunters of war criminals.

This film is included for good reason on the New York Times'  Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made List, as one of the few documentaries included.

Klaus Barbie has been a war criminal, responsible for crimes against humanity and various atrocities that have been well documented and yet it has taken so long to get him and there have been so many interviewed in this rather long film, at about four hours, that refused to be outraged.

Indeed, quite a few ordinary Germans and some who had been convicted for their role in World War II have insisted on the long time that has passed, forty years is a long time and let bygones be bygones...

As if it is not worse that this vicious, heinous brute had been free for so long, but since he has managed this abominable escape from justice, why not let him pay nothing for the children, women, Jews and gipsies that he had sent to the gas chambers.

There is an experiment called Milgram wherein participants are willing to go to incredible extremes when a figure of authority is asking, by applying deadly shocks to other participants in tests for instance.

This explains to some extent the position, obedience of common Germans in the World War II, but the attitude that those present in the documentary have is loathsome, with its insistence on forgetting about so many murders.

It must be said that it is not only Germans, but one of the leaders of the National Front in France- Jean Marie Le Pen is inserted with his horrible position on the holocaust, which he dismissed as an unimportant detail of the war - and various Bolivians, some of them important leaders in the army, others simple citizens.

Some people did not know about the real identity of Klaus Barbie, but others have been willing to cooperate with the Butcher of Lyon, with the full knowledge of his past and terrible crimes, engaging with him in manipulation of currencies, illegal transactions and offering him protection, instead of a place in jail.

Journalists from The New York Times have tried to take photographs near the residence of the monster and the Bolivian army sent soldiers to take them in custody and arrest them for some hours.

Barbie was the first visitor who one of the army generals was anointed the new president of the country, providing that his protection was of the highest possible level.

After the war, the Americans engaged in a confrontation with the new enemy, the Soviet Union, and in that conflict, the saying the enemy of my enemy is my friend was applied and it included Klaus Barbie and other such brutes.

Several operatives of the American Services- which were not yet the CIA - have been approached for this well researched and documented film and they explain that they did not know about his past, this individual brought a lot of valuable information and human assets in the game, furthermore, it seems that various parts of the American Goverment acted in a rather conflicting, confusing way.

It was the American services that helped the Butcher escape to South America and this is explained in part by the fact that at the time of his flight to another continent, the monster was in possession of too much valuable information, lists of agents for instance, to risk letting him fall into the hands of others.

Indeed, one of the operatives states that, if the French agencies would have had Klaus Barbie, they would first ask about intelligence details and seeing as first the French Resistance and then the services had been infiltrated by the communists, these invaluable lists could end up in the hands of the Evil Empire- The Soviets.

The Americans used the Vatican as intermediaries for this escape, important clergy figures have been very willing to help Nazi war criminals find refuge in South America.

One of those interviewed comes across as anti- Semitic and not in the least a "man of God", insisting on the time passed instead of the multiple murders committed.

When they finally learn that the Butcher is in Bolivia, the rulers do not wish to give him away, on the contrary, as aforementioned they were in cahoots with the criminal that so many of them really liked - since they obviously shared the same "values".

One of the many Jewish people that have suffered at the hands of Klaus Barbie decides to travel to La Paz and help find this serial killer who has taken from this woman almost all her family, husband and children.

There are other touching, heart wrenching testimonies, including one from a woman who was a child when Barbie took her family away, asked her parents for the address of other children and when these did not provide it, for they did not know where the children were, he used the most terrible torture, accusing the mother for being responsible for the fate of her daughter.

Luckily, this child escaped the gas chambers but she was the only one from her family, returns to the old house and mentions the vicious collaboration of neighbors, with the exception of one woman, who ever tried to hide the poor girl, only to be found and slapped by the fascists.

Barbie was not just giving orders, which is bad enough since one does not have to pull the trigger, on the contrary, the one giving the orders is guilty and sometimes the executioner is only obeying superior officers.

The Butcher of Lyon looked at the tortured men and women lying on the floor and when he thought he saw Jewish people he kicked and abused them.

Hotel Terminus follows through all the narrative, with witnesses, accomplices, the neighbor in La Paz who had been initially rejected by Klaus Barbie because the monster thought him Jewish, jailers and captors.