Compensation for victims of a Nazi enclave in Chile

Victims of abuse committed in the former Colonia Dignidad, the enclave founded in Chile by a former Nazi and having served as a detention center and torture during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973 -1990), will be compensated by the German government.

The victims will receive a maximum of 10,000 euros per person. Germany does not recognize any legal responsibility for the crimes committed in the Chilean territory, but recognizes a moral responsibility for what happened.

According to the German State, have many diplomats been complicit in the facts, at least by omission.

Victims, on the other hand, consider that compensation is rare.

"We are very grateful for the help that has been given, the considerable efforts of the parliamentarians who have visited us, it is an aid, yes, but that does not solve the problem, we are a lost generation," he said. German Horst Schaffrick, who at age 3 sits in the enclave and was mistreated.

"I am thankful, but there is still a long way to go, it would be good to think a little further.For example, as in Germany, parents receive an allowance per child," said the former Doris Gert, born in the enclave and party in 2008.

"Many of us are sick because of what we are living in the colony.I have been suffering from epilepsy since the age of 10 because of the blows (Paul) that Schäfer gave me. who pushed me against a wall, for many it is difficult to work, "he added.

Foundation

Colonia Dignidad was founded in 1961, about 350 km south of Santiago de Chile, by German emigrants from Siegburg, near Bonn.

Under the leadership of leader Paul Schäfer, torture, forced labor and abuse of children have been practiced for decades.

The excabo Nazi is busy in the place. He was the "teacher", a Wehrmacht doctor during the Second World War.

Among the documents declbadified by Germany in 2016, it appears that Colonia Dignidad was "a state in another state", a hermetic and impregnable fortress, but with more force and external influence than any other. it was previously believed, which allowed it to operate with impunity for a long time.

The 300 or so German citizens and 20 Chilean orphans who lived there had "everything they needed": a school, a 60-bed hospital, a bakery, a butcher, workshops, stables, growing areas, a generator electric and even a legal department. own

Its inhabitants worked from the morning to the previous evening, without any free weekends.

Colonia Dignidad was founded as an agrarian commune of Germans and was transformed into a sect that for decades, by confinement and indoctrination, created "human robots". In addition to the abuses, it was found that illegal psychoactive drugs were administered at the hospital and that an electroshock was applied to the members of the community.

After Schäfer's escape, Colonia Dignidad was transformed into a tourist and agricultural center named Villa Baviera.

After the departure of the leader, the Chileans discovered that the German enclave was also a hell for the opponents of the Pinochet dictatorship, many of them having been tortured or having disappeared.

The declbadified documents provide details of how Schäfer and his men collaborated with Dina for the disappearance of people.

The archives reveal a series of factors for which Colonia Dignidad has remained unpunished for so long: not only his close relations with the Pinochet regime, but also his links with German political circles, in addition to his formidable legal apparatus.

Former President Patricio Aylwin pledged to investigate Colonia Dignidad and created a truth commission at the time.

Schäfer escaped to Argentina in 1997, where he was arrested in 2005. A year later, after his extradition to Chile, he was sentenced to 33 years in prison for badual badault on children, torture, murder and illegal possession of weapons.

He died of heart failure in a Santiago prison in 2010. He was 88 years old.