Colonia Dignidad: the madness of Paul Schaefer (13 photos)

Brief summary: Colonia Dignidad is a (former) German enclave located in the territory of the Republic of Chile. It was a religious commune. It was founded by a fugitive German Nazi pedophile, Paul Schaefer.





Since 1991, the colony has been called Villa Baviera and is a large resort area, with a mini-hotel, a restaurant where tourists can sit with a glass of German beer, eat venison, surrounded by silence and beautiful nature. But this is now. Villa Baviera's past is terrible and sickening. And it has not gone away: on the territory of the Villa you can see old and dilapidated buildings where members of the cult lived, essentially being held captive by Paul Schaefer.



Under the guise of a Charitable Educational Society, terrible things happened in the commune for many years: during the reign of Pinochet, the enclave was a place where Chilean political dissidents were kept under guard and tortured. For years, under the slogan “God, Labor, Discipline,” there was slave labor, murder and molestation of little boys in the colony. To create the semblance of “robots”, Nazi experiments on people were carried out in the colony - in total, during the entire existence of Dignidad, more than 250 people were subjected to experiments and torture.

The Chilean National Intelligence Service actively encouraged everything that happened and, according to rough estimates, at least 100 people were executed in the colony from 1973 to 1978 alone.



Paul Schaefer

The history of Colonia Dignidad began in 1954 in the town of Siegburg, the religious organization “Private Social Mission” was organized by Paul Schaefer. Schäfer was a Nazi paramedic.

Since the time of the Third Reich, it has been noticed not only in pedophilia, but also in a number of other mental illnesses. His charitable mission was primarily to help German refugees from the GDR, as well as people who had lost their home and income. There were, of course, an extraordinary number of them in post-war Germany. In a relatively short period of time (several years), the organization acquired an influential group of followers, which even included wealthy businessmen. By the way, they supplied the “Private Social Mission” with money.

Schaefer, being the head of the community, practically without hiding, raped orphans. In the late fifties, he was charged with sexual abuse. The prosecutor's office issued an arrest warrant for Paul and he immediately left Germany for the GDR. Several hundred followers followed him.



For several years, Schaefer and his flock were looking for a new place for the sect, and in 1961 they arrived in Chile. German refugees received the support of the Chilean Ambassador to Germany Arturo Maschke and on September 21 of the same year, Paul Schaefer and his comrade-in-arms Hermann Schmidt bought the abandoned El Lavadero farm, 350 km from Santiago. It was registered as the foundation of the Dignidad Charitable and Educational Society. At that time, there were about 230 people in the colony and most of them were Germans.

At first they wanted to present it as helping orphans who lost their relatives during the earthquake in Valdivia. For this reason, the Dignidads were not subject to tax.



Paul Schaeffer with children

Paul Schaefer created a society completely isolated from the world and living under the heading of complete secrecy. The system of existence was full of severe control, repression, regular rape of children, and the life of every member of the community was in full view of everyone. Zero personal space. No relationships between men and women - this was considered a terrible sin, so children, men and women lived strictly separately and there was practically no contact. Those who violated the ban were subjected to torture with psychotropic substances, torture and public beatings. After such beatings, the person was practically unable to move.

The underground bunker and torture rooms were designed by CIA agent (US citizen) and professional assassin Michael Townley. He moved to Chile when his father was appointed head of the Ford Motor Company (we all remember Henry Ford's attitude towards the Nazis). Today Townley lives in America under the witness protection program.



Children of the Dignidad colony

Werner Schmidtke, a former prison inmate, said:

"Me, along with the naked boys, blindfolded and with wax plugs in their ears,strapped to iron beds and tortured with electric shocks. If he screamed, he was lowered into a vat of ice water. Then they again put the bare wire against the body..."

Schaefer was a religious fanatic and believed that in this way he drove Satan out of the boys. Gisela Seewald, the former head of the colony's hospital, pumped the children with sedatives almost until they passed out. Those who could not endure the ordeal were buried on the community grounds, in secret from everyone else. In just one night, he could demand three or four boys to be brought to him, sexually raping them in turn. Many said that they had suffered for many years the consequences of psychotropic drugs administered at the direction of Schaefer. They resembled withdrawal symptoms: cold sweats, trembling. Former victims of Schaefer's violence said that for many, many years they could not talk to anyone about it and carried this unbearable burden within themselves.



“Working hard to the last drop of sweat is true worship of God.” From sunrise until late in the evening, all residents of the community were engaged in slave labor. They built a hospital, a school, barracks, warehouses, fences and everything else. Work in the field was also mandatory and all this, of course, without days off or pay. By the way, the size of the community grew due to this kind of “charity”, because the locals willingly sent their children to be raised by Paul, because he had already won the trust of the Chileans. But the children who crossed the threshold of the colony might never see their mom and dad again, living in slave labor, subjected to violence and cruel punishments.

The colony had a system of internal espionage and it consisted not only of denunciations: motion sensors, microphones, and video cameras were used. All this equipment was brought from Germany and installed on walls, trees, in the ground and more. The idea was not only to have complete control over the people inside the colony, but also to prevent anyone from sneaking into their territory.

At the end of the sixties, the enclave was inhabited by a little more than three hundred Germans and 40 Chilean orphan boys. There was barbed wire connected to electricity along the perimeter, it was controlled by patrol and guard dogs - complete isolation from Chile. It was a real state within another.



This is how dignitaries who visited the community were greeted

After the coup of September 11, 1973, a civil-military dictatorship was established in Chile for 17 years. It was truly a fascist regime. Thousands of Pinochet's political opponents disappeared, were shot or imprisoned.

Schaefer secretly collaborated with the Chilean secret police, who carried out repressive policies. At 13 organized points, those “inconvenient” to the dictatorship were tortured and killed. In fact, they were carbon copies of the concentration camps of the Third Reich.

Needless to say, Colonia Dignidad became one of these centers. Those few who were able to escape from the community said that very important people came to the colony more than once, including the head of the secret police, Manuel Contreras, and Pinochet and his wife.

But despite such serious support for the Chilean dictatorship, the colony was able to maintain its autonomy and power. Schaefer had very, very strong patrons.



One of the bunkers

Provision of Colonia Dignidad was carried out in several ways. Its residents worked in agriculture from morning until night, and products from the fields went to a number of supermarkets in Chile. In the place where the colony was located there were several titanium and gold mines. By the time of the fall of Dignidad, they were completely exhausted and most likely all the discovered metals were secretly transported to Germany. There are documents confirming that there were commercial ties between officials of the German diplomatic headquarters in Chile and the colony.

All funds and documents were kept in Schaefer's office and none of the community members knew exactly how much money passed through Colonia Dignidad.



This, by the way, is Hartmut Hopp, Schaefer’s closest ally, who managed to escape to Germany. His punishment was in absentia and insignificant.

But it’s worth returning to people. To those who find themselves in captivity, without the opportunity to get out of slavery. Successful escapes from the community could be counted on one hand, if you remember what severe technical equipment the enclave had. And the second point: where to run? The Germans had no passports, no money, no knowledge of Spanish. Nazi Schaefer either hid them in his office or simply destroyed them. Unsuccessful attempts to run