The husband of Nazihunter Beate Klarsfeld has announced that a retired police chief inspector was in fact the head of the German Gestapo in Toulouse, southwest France, during World War II. Serge Klarsfeld said Karl-Heinz Muller, a retired chief police inspector in Lower Saxony, headed the Toulouse gestapo from 1943 to 1944.
Under his directions, the Nazis arrested and executed dozens of French resistance fighters and deported hundreds of Jews to Germany. Muller was sentenced to death in absentia by a French military court in 1953. Klarsfeld said the location and date of birth of the alleged Nazi war criminal coincided with a man surnamed Muller his wife questioned in Germany. Karl-Heinz Muller denied the allegations.
Klarsfeld, who traced Muller after going through the archives of YIVO in New York which contained the Toulouse gestapo file, said he would transmit Muller’s dossier to the prosecutor who is heading the West German bureau dealing with war criminals.
Help ensure Jewish news remains accessible to all. Your donation to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency powers the trusted journalism that has connected Jewish communities worldwide for more than 100 years. With your help, JTA can continue to deliver vital news and insights. Donate today.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
