The Torture Colony: Cult at Colonia Dignidad

April 29, 2010

This is a terrible and terribly sad story. A few days ago Paul Schäfer, an Ex-Nazi who had relocated to Chile, died. And many would argue that he died in a way that did not come close to matching the atrocities he was responsible for.

While living in Chile, Schäfer founded Colonia Dignidad. Envisioned as a Utopia, the colony’s charity hospital ended up providing free care to thousands of local patients.

Funded in part by state subsidies, its quality of care was excellent–the hospital was always busy and over the years provided full and recurring treatment for 26,000 people. The colonos sent buses or hired the few locals with cars to collect patients from their isolated villages. Sometimes entire families would arrive at once. The maternity ward was especially popular, as the hospital continued to supply local women with four and half pounds of powdered milk every month for the first six years of a child’s life. To this day, pictures of some of the thousands of Chilean babies born there remain posted on the wall of the reception area.

Within the walls of the colony however, was a different matter. Reports of fear tactics, weapon caches, child molestation, and torture slowly began to make their way to the outside world. During Pinochet’s regime, Colonia Dignidad became a place where Pinochet’s secret police took kidnapped opponents for torture and execution.

Schäfer used fear to control the inhabitants of Colonia Dignidad, and established himself as the primary authority figure (he was called “The Permanent Uncle”).

All challengers to Schaefer’s authority–real or imagined–were rooted out and destroyed. No one inspired greater love and admiration among the children of the Colonia than Santa Claus. It is said that in the days shortly before Christmas one year in the mid-1970s, Schaefer gathered the Colonia’s children, loaded them onto a bus, and drove them out to a nearby river, where, he told them, Santa was coming to visit. The boys and girls stood excitedly along the riverbank, while an older colono in a fake beard and a red and white suit floated towards them on a raft. Schaefer pulled a pistol from his belt and fired, seeming to wound Santa, who tumbled into the water, where he thrashed about before disappearing below the surface. It was a charade, but Schaefer turned to the children assembled before him and said that Santa was dead. From that day forward, Schaefer’s birthday was the only holiday celebrated inside Colonia Dignidad.

It’s difficult for me to imagine how a place like Colonia Dignidad even existed, let along existed for some 30+ years. The full article talks more about life within the colony, and the article does move towards some sense of closure.

I don’t normally post stuff like this, but I was completely shocked by everything I read. If you were to have described Colonia Dignidad to me, I would have dismissed it as fiction. In light of Schäfer’s death, it seems that there’s not much that can be done to address his crimes, if there ever was such a way.

Shining light in dark places won’t address what happened, but it’s what we can do. Hopefully, talking about it will help prevent another place like Colonia Dignidad from ever establishing.

[via BoingBoing]

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. Sounds an awful lot like Jonestown. Plus Pinochet.(Jonestown:

    )

    juliet (April 29, 2010 at 5:51 pm) Reply


  2. I thought of Jonestown as well. Although for whatever reason, I always viewed the Peoples Temple was rooted initially in good intentions – they started out doing some pretty amazing and inspirational stuff.At first. Reading the Wikipedia article, it’s like a slow downhill progression, and you can just watch how things start declining.With Colonia Dignidad, even though they did a lot of charitable work through their hospital, I view it as a darker example. Both Jonestown and Colonia Dignidad were cults, but I feel like Jim Jones struck out on one path with the Peoples Temple, but unfortunately went down another path and created Jonestown.Thanks for the link, Juliet.

    avoision (April 30, 2010 at 6:02 am) Reply


  3. Yeah, I think a lot of the people who joined the People’s Temple had good intentions. I don’t know if Jim Jones ever did or not. He certainly controlled a lot of people from the beginning and exercised his control more completely as time went on.I thought some more about the Colonia Dignidad after I read that whole article — really chilling and eerie, by the way. That seems to describe what could have happened to Jonestown had everyone not died but continued on without Jones. Anyway, it’s bizarre that at C.D. they’re all still doing everything the way that Schaefer originally told them to. We are so willing to be led.

    juliet (May 7, 2010 at 4:48 pm) Reply


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