Klaus Barbie was born on October 25, 1913 in Godesberg, later renamed Bad Godesberg, which is today part of Bonn. In 1914, his father Nickolaus Barbie was drafted to fight in World War I. He returned an angry, bitter man. Wounded in the neck at Verdun and captured by the French, whom he hated, he never recovered his health. He became an alcoholic and abused his children.when he was 10, Barbie, a shy and quiet youth, went to the local school where his father taught. Afterward, he attended a boarding school in Trier and was relieved to be away from his abusive father. In 1925, the entire Barbie family moved to Trier.In June 1933, Barbie's younger brother Kurt died at the age of eighteen of chronic illness. Later that year, their father died.