Located in the south of the country, Colonia Dignidad was founded in 1961 by Paul Schäfer, a former Nazi accused of pedophilia. The place was also used as a torture site during the Pinochet dictatorship.
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Paul Schäfer fled Germany to take refuge in Chile taking with him 300 indoctrinated compatriots. For several years, he sexually abused children and subjected the colony’s residents to forced labor. Close to the dictator ofAugusto Pinochet, he is protected. Its colony was also used as a place of torture under the dictatorship and some 150 opponents are said to have been killed there. A joint Chilean and German commission met to work on this issue and Berlin decided in 2019 to compensate the victims abuses.
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Upon the return of democracy, under the government of Patricio Aylwin (1990-1994), in 1991, Colonia Dignidad was dismantled and became Villa Baviera. Paul Schäfer, he was imprisoned in 2006 and died in prison four years later at the age of 88. Today, the place is still occupied by German settlers, and it is mainly the children of the former leaders of the Nazi sect who are at the head of several companies located in the former colony.
This is what Margarita Romero, president of the Association for Memory and Human Rights Colonia Dignidad, explains to our correspondent in Santiago, Naïla Derroisné. “ There are tourism companies, a restaurant. Not very long ago, the Oktoberfest was celebrated there. There are also weddings. It is an offense to the victims of this place who are now demanding reparation. »
Some of the German settlers have, however, filed a complaint against the former leaders of the sect for slavery, mistreatment and sexual abuse.
Thanks to work of victims’ families of the dictatorship, tortured and killed in Colonia Dignidad, the Chilean State declared 182 hectares located in the former colony as a National Monument.
Now, President Gabriel Boric is going further with a process of expropriation of this land to build a place of memory and contemplation. “ We are very satisfied with this announcement, resumes Margarita Romero. We’ve been waiting for this for a long time. But now we are asking above all that victims’ organizations can also participate in this memory project. »
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