The colony of Dignidad in Chile is a terrible fragment of Nazi Germany. Sectarianism, human experimentation, torture, sexual assault and political murder are intertwined in her story. The colony lasted 30 years and was disbanded by force only in 1991. There is still no exact information on how many lives were broken and ruined in it.
The first bells
Dignidad was founded by Paul Schaefer, whose life path at first did not differ from the biography of respectable burghers. He was born in 1921 in the small German town of Troisdorf. During World War II, he was drafted into the army, where he served as a corporal in a sanitary battalion. In the combat zone he was wounded and lost an eye.
After the war, Schaefer got a job as a teacher in a kindergarten, but was soon expelled from there "for indecent acts against minors" and excommunicated from the Church. It is believed that it was this shame that became the impetus for the development of his psychopathic inclinations. Paul became interested in preaching and, thanks to the power of public speaking and acting, quickly gained a loyal following. Together they founded a Private Social Mission near Siegburg, and in fact a sect. Its purpose was to take care of the health, upbringing and education of little wards who were found in shelters and hospitals - in the post-war years there were many street children and children from disadvantaged families. Financial affairs went uphill: many followers donated all property to the mission. However, a sex scandal soon erupted again. Realizingthat at home he faces many years in prison, Paul Schaefer emigrated to Chile.
Promised land
Chile - the colorful country of South America - was not chosen by chance. As far as possible from Europe, it attracted many Nazi criminals, to whom, however, Schaefer did not belong. The country's authorities did not interfere with the defectors, did not prosecute them according to the law, and did not extradite them to other countries upon request.
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A large plot of land in a remote area 6 hours from the capital, Santiago, was allocated to the “charity” Schaefer had formed here, and work was in full swing. Schäfer's wards erected buildings and fences 12-14 hours a day, which for many of them later became a prison, a torture chamber and a last refuge. They were denied their passports and the right to communicate with people outside the community. From now on, their lives focused on 13 thousand hectares of land, surrounded by barbed wire, with towers and guards armed with machine guns. The airspace over the colony was controlled by light aircraft and powerful radars.
The created zone was ironically named Dignidad, which means "honor", "dignity".
State within a State
In fact, in the second half of the twentieth century, Schaefer succeeded in the incredible: to build his own state, which was de facto outside the jurisdiction of the Chilean authorities. Pinochet's rise to power in 1973 played an important role in this. The dictator was impressed by the ideas of Nazism and the methods of housekeeping in Dignidad: free slave labor was used there with might and main, and torture was used against those who disagree. There is a version that the sect participated in the massacres of the opposition on the orders of the ruling elite of Chile.
The colony was regularly replenished with new members. Often these were minors, whom courts, orphanages, hospitals gave into her for education. If families of volunteers came to the sect, the parents were separated from their children. There was no way back - the local authorities did not risk coming into conflict with the German guests.
External gloss
The commune managed to conduct successful economic activities. Over time, Dignidad literally flourished thanks to slave labor, lack of tax burden and the entrepreneurial talent of Schaefer and his company. Vegetables and fruits, meat and dairy products, honey, confitures were profitably sold in Chile and Germany. Two fishing boats in Concepción, a gravel pit, a gold mine, and a Family Club restaurant all brought in a net profit that was distributed among the leaders of Dignidad. During the years of the Pinochet dictatorship, according to available information, a plant for the assembly of firearms, mainly machine guns, was deployed on the territory of the colony.
Inner terror
Inside the perimeter of the settlement, a cruel regime operated with a mass of totalitarian and sectarian rules and requirements, with psychological pressure and circular responsibility for offenses, torture, rape, bullying, and perversion were practiced. As it turned out after the liquidation of the commune, Schaefer and his team tortured several thousand prisoners, dozens of bodies were found in secret burials on the territory of the colony.
It has been established for certain that the infamous doctor Josef Mengele, who was nicknamed the "angel of death from Auschwitz" for his cruel experiments on people, "worked" for some time on the territory of Dignidad. But rumors that Martin Bormann, Hitler's personal secretary, was hiding there for a long time, have not yet been supported by evidence.
In 1985, Boris Weifeller, an American tourist, a former USSR native, disappeared without a trace in the vicinity of the colony. According to one hypothesis, the adventurer planned to get to a secret facility to be sure of the presence of Nazi criminals there, and then, having made this information public, become famous. His dream was not destined to come true, and until now nothing is known about his fate.
Died at a ripe old age
When in 1990, in the bowels of the administration of Chilean President Patricio Eylwin, they began to prepare a decree on the liquidation of the legal status of the colony and the seizure of property, Schaefer and his closest associates Schmidt and Hopp took urgent countermeasures to divide real estate and monetary assets, create new companies and firms, and succession which with the colony is extremely difficult to prove.
The Dignidad Charitable and Educational Society was disbanded in 1991 by presidential decree. The motivation is a blatant deviation from the goals stated during the creation and repeated violation of Chilean legislation. The investigation took a long time. In 1997, Schaefer fled the country. He was arrested only in 2005 in Argentina and extradited to Chile. In 2006, he was convicted of numerous abuse of children and other residents of the colony. Of the 33 years of captivity measured by the court, he spent only four years behind bars and died of heart failure, being a very old man.