Mark Gagnon (0:00)

Colonia Dignidad. We know that Nazis had fled Post World War II, and many of them went to South America. But did you know there was a rural Chilean cult that harbored many of these Nazis and engaged in many nefarious acts? And today we're going to be breaking it all down. If you've never heard of Colonia Dignidad, this is a secretive German enclave established in rural Chile 1961 by a gentleman named Paul Schaeffer, who fled Germany following allegations of child abuse. Presented to the outside world as charitable religious community, Colonia Dignidad concealed a reality of the worst human rights abuses you could imagine. I mean, child exploitation, forced labor, collaboration with Chilean military dictatorship. I mean, the worst stuff imaginable. And the story of Colonia Dignidad is an example of how a charismatic leader, an authoritarian ideology, and a state complicit with abuse enabled decades of suffering behind closed doors. So today we're going to dive deep on this bizarre chapter of history known as the Nazi Pedo cult, and how they were able to take advantage of the needy and legally adopt children without consent. So, without further ado, let's jump in. So who was this guy? Paul Schaer. All right. He was born in a little town called Bonn on December 4, 1921. He. He's the third son of a woman named Anna Schmitz. His father, Jacob Schaefer, disappeared after they divorced in 1932. And Paul Schaefer was 10 years old at the time. And his mother remarried in 1933. And according to Schaeffer, his father had died in the war, as did his two older brothers. And at the age of six, Paul Shaffer was severely injured in his eye. And from then on, he wore a glass eye. That becomes sort of emblematic of his myopic view on the world. And at the age of 18, Schaefer moved to a small town near cologne. And in October 1940, he was called up for a few months in the Reich Labor Services. This was basically a. A Nazi paramilitary force in a town nearby. Due to his eye injury, he was not deployed to the front. And in 1941, he was drafted for a military service and stationed in a small town known as Munster, presumably as a medic. But no one is really clear. Due to the sparse information about Schaefer's role during the Second World War, there are later, you know, many different speculations about his involvement in other, you know, Nazi crimes. Specifically mentioned were possible assignments in forced labor camps and a subcant sub camp of the Buchwald. Concentration camp. Again, none of this necessarily can be verified, but again, many theories about what he was doing abound. After the war, he becomes active as a lay preacher and a youth worker in the Evangelical Free Church. Schaeffer was known for his charisma and this sort of authoritarian style. You could say that he spoke very. He was very convicted, and he would speak with absolute certainty. And as a result, he attracted many people, you know, after the war, specifically war widows and their children. And he founded what he called the private school Social Mission, which operated basically as, like, an orphanage and some type of Christian charity. And Schaefer's approach was marked by this sort of, like, strict, you know, German discipline and this focus on obedience, which later we'll see, kind of lays the groundwork for his leadership style in Chile. So by the 1950s, Schaefer's activities in Germany came under some suspicion. Parents and authorities raised concern about his inappropriate behavior with some of the children in his care. And in 1961, the German police opened a formal investigation into these allegations. So in order to evade prosecution, he leaves, he flees Germany and takes with him a group of loyal followers, including many of their children. The circumstances of their departure were, I guess, legally questionable, you could say, as some children were removed from their families, really without proper consent. So him and his followers, they go to Chile in 1961, seeking to escape the legal prosecution that they were facing in Germany. And upon their arrival, they were. They acquired this large tract of land near a town called Parol in central Chile. The Chilean government granted legal status to the group, officially recognizing it as the Sociedad Benefactor E Educational Dignidad. Gabe, how was my pronunciation on that? Horrible. That was horrible. Thank you. I appreciate that. The legal recognition basically allowed Schaefer and his group to kind of, like, establish themselves with a degree of, you know, protection, right? Like, they are coming here, and we're. We're being legit and above board. And this lays the foundation for the enclave that would later become Colonia Dignidad. The community is. When they're structuring it, initially, it's this kind of closed settlement, primarily of German immigrants. And at its height, Colonia Dignidad had about 300 individuals, most of them brought from Germany or under Schaefer's leadership. And the settlement was physically isolated. I mean, you can see a picture of it here. It's surrounded by fences and guarded entrances, and contact with the outside world was pretty limited. I mean, this is like a. Like an old cult tactic, right? You take people from a place. I mean, you know, Jonestown is the most infamous example. And you move them to a new place, and they don't know anyone. They don't necessarily speak the language. So they're forced to be, you know, very isolationist, which, as we'll learn, can become rampant for all types of terrible abuses. So the community operates, you know, as its own sort of like, you know, agrarian, industrial kind of commune in a way. And it has its own internal systems and effectively functions as a state within a state. And Schaefer exercises absolute control over all the people and all aspects of their life. Within Colonia Dignidad, he enforces a regime of, you know, discipline and surveillance and obedience, using a lot of, like, religious ideology as the central tool for keeping all of this authority. And members were subjected to very rigorous routines of, you know, monitoring and isolation from Chilean society and then even their own families within the enclave. And religious doctrine was used to justify and reinforce a lot of this stuff. And this again, ensured that Schaefer would be, you know, the. The head authoritarian within this little sub community. So within the colony, Schaeffer established this hierarchy system that relied on, you know, all the things from discipline to basically suppression of, like, their individual rights. He presented himself as this spiritual leader using religion, but really a pseudo religious discourse to legitimize his authority over all the people within this community. And this framework was centered on, again, just maintaining control of all the people. The structure of the community is characterized by separation of family units and prohibition of a lot of interpersonal relationships and this enforcement of a rigid daily routine. So he kind of enforced almost like a. Like a Gestapo in a way. Inside the colony, people were constantly monitoring each other, and they were encouraged to report to each other about someone else potentially going outside the commune or having private, closed discourse with other people within the community. And this environment of constant monitoring and fear was the key element upholding the community's order and ultimately Schaefer's dominance. Many of the members were denied access to any type of external media or communicating with outsiders. And if anyone did, they'd be severely punished. Within the commune, personal bonds, including, you know, romantic or even family relationships, were suppressed in order to eliminate, you know, potential alliances that could go against Schaefer's authority. And anyone that did question his authority was met with severe punishment, again, reinforcing the system where human rights violations were systematically and, you know, deeply embedded in the community's life every single day. So this is where it starts to get even more effed up. So you have this guy Schaefer right And he starts to forcibly remove children from their parents and basically commit them to communal care. So parents with their kids, he's now severing the family ties and saying, these children are now the children of the commune and not your kids specifically. And custody rights were then transferred to group members, ensuring that the children were indoctrinated into the rigid hierarchy and then again subjected to all these abuses. I mean, it's just crazy. You have to think like these people, they go through this war in Germany and again, many of them were on the wrong side, as you can imagine. But these kids are ostensibly innocent. And the widows, they were at home and so now they've moved away from their families and their immediate families put into a different country. And then their kids are forcibly taken from them, from within the commune, in a place that they know nothing about, with a language that they can't speak. They don't even know who to go to, they can't even leave the commune. So now their kids are taken from. I mean, I have a kid, I have a seven month old little baby boy. The idea that someone would take my kid, I mean, it'd be like agonizing. I mean, it's like insane to think that this guy would forcibly take their kids, especially if you know that he's being investigated for child abuse back in Germany. It's like absurd. So from the foundation of the colony, they start now actively reaching out to impoverished families in the surrounding rural areas. And this is a classic again, like abuser cult move, where they find the most disenfranchised people that need support, offer them the support, and then, you know, systematically abuse them, either through forced labor or, you know, sexual abuse, all this other terrible shit. So what they would do is they would go around offering free medical care and educational opportunities to local kids. And these services were used to build trust and kind of bring families in who lacked access to these basic resources. Again positioning the commune as this benevolent kind of force within the region. So they go to these people and they say, hey, you know, your kid, he's really smart, but he's not getting access to the right education. You know, we come from Germany where we have all these educational opportunities. Wouldn't you want your kid to have access to the most, you know, tip top educational opportunities? And the parents are like, yeah, I guess. And then they pull in more people, again, pull them away from their communities. And now they've fully got their grips on them. So many of the local families, they kind of got persuaded and they entrusted their kids to the Commune unaware of the true nature of what Schaefer was doing, you know, there or even back in Germany. And they believed their children would receive better living conditions and just offering them an opportunity outside of the poverty that they were experiencing. So within the colony now, both German and Chilean children are becoming victims of this systemic abuse and exploitation. And the structure of the commune, again, with its hierarchy, isolation, and, you know, snitching culture, where people were monitoring each other at all times, facilitated and concealed the crimes. The abuse of the minors, especially boys, was a central ongoing crime within the enclave. And the leadership not only protected, but just enabled all of this to happen within the community. I mean, it's just crazy that these people would just kind of just turn the other way. But again, if this guy's saying, like, hey, we'll kill you, we'll send you to the authorities, we can get you deported, you'll never see your kid again. He now has claim to you and your entire family. And again, this abuse is not only to the children that were the Germans, but local families as well that were lured in under these false pretenses. So the leadership within this colony, not only was it Schaefer, but it was many people with their backgrounds that were linked to the Nazi Germans and other far right extremist groups that existed in that area. So a researcher, Jan Steele, documented that amongst Paul Schaeffer's followers were people who had been part of this Nazi regime and had strong sympathies for the ideology even after the war. So the enclave's founder, Schaefer himself, was a former member of the Hitler Youth and a medic during World War II. So the presence of former Nazis in these far right extremists contributed to this authoritarian and hierarchical structure that defined the community. You know, these people had already been brainwashed and indoctrinated under these Nazi ideals, and so it was much easier to co op them into now taking on this class of ideas, which frankly is not that different. Right? It's a system of surveillance and abuse. And this ideology, along with, you know, this nostalgia for the German homeland and the hierarchy and the religion were all justifications for his authority. So Schaefer himself, as the head of the commune, but many of the other hierarchs that he kind of brought in as the, you know, top brass of the commune, would, through a system of surveillance and punishment, would force people not only into this sexual abuse, but also into forced labor. And people, specifically the natives, the Chileans of the region were adults and children, were forced under harsh conditions to work, you know, 16 hour days doing manual labor. And anyone that dissented or stepped out would then be either tortured or threatened with torture. And again, this form of, you know, psychological and physical abuse just led to a cyclical nature where people were then, you know, more and more inclined to listen to everything that he said. So throughout the 60s, Schaeffer had established a colony that was built on this type of pseudo religious, you know, borderline Nazi authoritarian abuse. And by the 70s, this again, this abuse has been going on for a decade. The political tensions of Chile created a system where they could now rely on the turbulence of the local political government. So by the 1970s, Schaefer and the leadership of Colonia Dignidad aligned themselves with the country's political right. This strategic alignment was motivated by the fear of, you know, land reform policies that was then proposed by the President Salvador Aladante, and his government that then threatened the enclave's extensive property holdings. And if you infringe on the property holdings, then the isolationistic methods of control would then be lost. So Schaefer and his followers sought protection and political favor by supporting the conservative right wing actors that, you know, opposed the President's reforms. Shortly thereafter, there was a military coup by General Augusto Pinochet in 1973. Colonia Dignidad became directly involved in the apparatus of this kind of state repression. And the enclave served as a clandestine site for detention and torture and kidnappings and disappearances of political prisoners. So as much as Colonia Dignidad needed some type of government support to facilitate their abuse and control, the government also needed a place, sort of a black site, to then carry out their atrocities as well. This facility and the infrastructure of the colony were then made available to the Chilean secret police. And the enclave became notorious as a center for basically human rights abuses. This was a concentration camp now existing in Chile with Nazi ideology. And the crimes were again a part of this systemic collaboration between Colonia Dignidad and, and the Pinochet regime. And the relationship between the dictatorship and Schaefer was further underscored by personal visits from high ranking officials. I mean, at one point, Augusto Pinochet himself, along with the secret police chief Manuel Contreras, visited the enclave, demonstrating the close ties between the community and this regime. The facilities of Colonia Dignidad were then not only used for the repression of and intelligence operations, but also as this support between the dictatorship and the abuser at this time. So now Schaefer and his commune is completely protected by the political nature of the place and the government that's in charge, and they're both mutually benefiting. The enclave provides a space for detention and torture and disappearance of Pinochet's enemies. And Schaefer is now able to carry on his isolationist, systemic, oppressive regime without anyone trying to come in and stop him. So despite many attempts to stay sort of secure and covered up, public knowledge and reports about the crimes occurring within the colony went out there, and people started to talk about it. But Pinochet's government allowed the commune to operate with complete impunity. The Chilean state not only failed to intervene, but also provided protection and legal status to the enclave's leadership, ensuring that the investigation into the abuses would never be sought after. The climate of this impunity persisted all the way through the dictatorship, even as evidence of torture and kidnappings and abuse continued to mount. So this shared nature of, you know, sort of protection and impunity made it slow for anyone to get justice at the end of the regime, but ultimately in the transition to democracy in Chile brought this renewed scrutiny to the crimes committed by the people at Colonia Dignidad. So as the dictatorship of Pinochet ended in, the Chilean society began to address the legacy of human rights abuses, Paul Schaefer and his enclave became the subject of public and judicial attention. About time, right? The period at this point saw increased efforts from survivors and advocates to basically go to the Chilean state to investigate and expose all the violations that occurred within the commune. Everything from, like I said, forced labor to sexual abuse and collaboration with the Pinochet regime in exchange for disappearing political opponents. So by 1997, after mounting legal pressure and public outcry, Schaefer fled Chile to evade prosecution for his sexual crimes and other crimes of forced labor, et cetera. And he remained a fugitive for several years until his arrest in Argentina in 2005. I mean, just imagine how long this was. He develops and actually creates the commune in 61. He starts this in Germany in the 50s. So this guy goes from the 50s until 2005. I mean, straight up, five decades, 50 years of abuse and murder and torture, and at that point, Only then in 2005, is he actually caught and put on trial for his crimes. He's extradited to Chile. And Shaffer was convicted of many, many counts of abuse on minors, amongst other things, and received a lengthy prison sentence marking this moment of accountability for the leadership of Colonia Dignidad. And despite the developments, the investigation into the full extent of the abuses and the disappearances connected to Colonia Dignidad continued. I mean, survivors and advocates persisted in their efforts to achieve this type of justice. And the process was slow and arduous and bureaucratic and again, complicated by the enclave's decades of secrecy and involvement with not only the Chilean, but also the German authorities. 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