Chile weighs future of charming German village with dark past
But Colonia Dignidad, as it was previously known, is a byword for horror, as the former home of a brutal cult that was used for torturing and killing dissidents under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Twenty years after the cult leader, former Wehrmacht soldier Paul Schaefer, was jailed for the sexual abuse and torture of children at the colony, the Chilean state wants to turn it into a memorial for the victims of the country's 1973-1990 dictatorship.
In June last year, President Gabriel Boric ordered that 116 hectares (287 acres) of the 4,800-hectare site, an area including the residents' homes, a hotel, a restaurant, and several food processing factories, be expropriated to make way for a center of remembrance.
But some of the inhabitants, who were separated from their families as children, subjected to forced labor, and in some cases, sexually abused, say they are being victimized all over again.
Colonia Dignidad
Schaefer founded Colonia Dignidad in 1961 as an idyllic German family village — but instead abused, drugged and indoctrinated the few hundred residents and kept them as virtual slaves.
The boundaries between abuser and abused were blurred, with the children of Schaefer's sidekicks counting themselves among his victims.
Anna Schnellenkamp, the 48-year-old manager of the colony's hotel and restaurant, said she 'worked completely free of charge until 2005,' the year of Schaefer's arrest. 'So much work I broke my back.'
Several years ago Schnellenkamp, whose late father Kurt Schnellenkamp was jailed for five years for being an accomplice to Schaefer's abuse, finally found happiness.
She got married, had a daughter and started to create new, happier memories in the colony, where everyone still communicates in German despite being conversant in Spanish.
But she still views the settlement as part of her birthright.
'The settlers know every detail, every building, every tree, including where they once suffered and were forced to work,' she explained.
Chile's dictatorship
Around 3,200 people were killed and more than 38,000 people tortured during Chile's brutal dictatorship.
An estimated 26 people disappeared in Colonia Dignidad, where a potato shed, now a national monument, was used to torture dozens of kidnapped regime opponents.
But on the inside too, abuse was rife.
Schaefer was captured in 2005 on charges of sexually abusing dozens of minors over nearly half a century. He died in prison five years later while in preventive custody.
His arrest, and those of 20 other accomplices, marked a turning point for the colony, which had been rebranded Villa Baviera a decade previously.
Suddenly, residents were free to marry, live with their children, send them to school and earn a paycheck.
Some of the settlers returned to Germany.
Others remained behind and built a thriving agribusiness and resort, where tourists can sample traditional German fare, such as sauerkraut.
Some residents feel that Chile, which for decades turned a blind eye to the fate of the enclave's children, now wants to make them pay for the sins of their fathers.
'One feels a kind of revenge against us,' said Markus Blanck, one of the colony's business directors, whose father was charged as an accomplice of Schaefer's abuse but died before being sentenced.
The government argues that the expropriations are in the public interest.
'There is a national interest here in preserving our country's historical heritage,' Justice Minister Jaime Gajardo told AFP, assuring that those expropriated would be properly compensated.
Memorial site
While several sites of torture under the Chilean dictatorship have been turned into memorial sites, Gajardo said the memorial at Villa Baviera would be the biggest yet, similar to those created at former Nazi concentration camps in Europe.
It is not yet clear whether it will take the form solely of a museum or whether visitors will also be able to roam the site, including Schaefer's house and the infamous potato shed.
The clock is ticking down for Boric to make the memorial a reality before his term runs out in March 2026.
His government wants to proceed quickly, for fear that the project be buried by a future right-wing government loathe to dwell on the abuses of the Pinochet era.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
a day ago
- Al Arabiya
Breaking: Over 20 injured after vehicle plows into crowd in Los Angeles: LAFD
A vehicle drove into a crowd in East Hollywood in Los Angeles early on Saturday, injuring more than 20 people, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. At least four victims were in critical condition and at least eight others are seriously injured in the incident that occurred on Santa Monica Boulevard, the alert said. Developing
Al Arabiya
4 days ago
- Al Arabiya
Fire kills at least 50 at Iraq shopping mall: Governor
A fire at a shopping mall in Iraq has killed at least 50 people, according to the governor.
Arab News
10-07-2025
- Arab News
Remembering the 7/7 attacks and the backlash that followed
The UK on Monday marked the 20th anniversary of the July 7, 2005, attacks that left 52 people dead (56 including the attackers) and 784 injured. They were the victims of an attack planned by a group of four young British men who traveled into Central London carrying large backpacks containing homemade bombs. Three of them boarded trains on the London Underground network and detonated their devices, killing and maiming dozens. As the authorities were still trying to establish what had happened, another device was detonated on a bus. The carnage created by these devastating explosions was horrific. It is right that people remember those killed and injured in these tragic events — they were innocent bystanders who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But on the day this article was written, nearly 100 people were killed in Gaza. They had nowhere to escape, with their homes mostly razed to the ground over the past two years. Tens of thousands have died since the war started, but it is unlikely their names will be remembered as well as those killed in London that fateful morning as millions traveled to work. Tens of thousands have died in the Gaza war, but it is unlikely their names will be remembered as well as those killed in London Peter Harrison London is a multicultural city filled with people of every nationality, ethnicity, culture and religion. If the 7/7 attacks were aimed at hurting Britain, they were misguided. If the killers, who claimed they were Muslims, were doing it in the name of their religion, then what about the Muslims they killed? If it were out of hatred of the British, then what about the people who were born in other parts of the world who were there or who lost loved ones? And if it were an attack on British society, what about those people impacted who opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or stood firmly opposed to the politics that governed the country, but did so peacefully? The attackers did claim to be Muslims, but they certainly did not carry out an act of love or peace — the two driving factors of the faith that the vast majority of Muslims follow and practice. Over the last three decades, the world has been impacted by many acts of violence largely claimed to be in the name of religion, although there have been fewer than many people seem to think. We live in an era of uncertainty and increased fear of perceived threats. A YouGov poll published ahead of the 7/7 anniversary found that the level of concern about the threat of terrorism in the UK has been growing. 'Where in mid-2023 only 14 percent of Britons felt the threat had increased 'a lot' over the preceding five years, that figure has steadily increased … and has now doubled to 29 percent as of June,' the report explained. Again, if the 7/7 attackers believed they were killing in the name of their claimed faith, then spare a thought for the Muslims left behind, many of whom have at some point been pressured to denounce every attack or be accused of supporting the killers. The truth is that all the 7/7 attackers and the few others like them have achieved is a marked increase in Islamophobia. All that the 7/7 attackers and the few others like them have achieved is a marked increase in Islamophobia Peter Harrison So, not only do Muslims in the UK have anxieties related to the fear of future terror attacks, but they also have daily concerns about attacks against them because of their faith. Far more people suffer from that than have been attacked by extremists. The YouGov poll found that 47 percent of Britons consider Islamist extremists to be a 'big threat.' But while the police and intelligence services in the UK now see right-wing extremists as being on a par, only 25 percent of those polled share that view. Ironically, active threats from Islamist extremists in the UK may be 'high, but stable,' but those from right-wing extremists are 'rapidly increasing.' Islamophobia is a real problem. In October 2024, the monitoring group Tell Mama reported a spike in anti-Muslim abuse to 4,971 incidents in the year following the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks — the highest total in 14 years. It is also well documented that, in the days that followed 7/7, there was a notable increase in Islamophobia in the UK. There is a growing trend in British politics, like much of the West, to move further to the right. Political parties of all persuasions have joined in the blame culture, pointing the finger at a supposed influx of migrants. The truth is that, following the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, there was an inevitable increase in the number of migrants arriving in Britain legally or otherwise, but that is expected to fall away in the coming years. Hatred seems to have become the tool of choice when discussing politics. But surely the best way to beat attacks such as those commemorated this week is to show how united our communities are. It is right we remember those impacted by attacks such as 7/7 and it is right to be shocked, but it is also important to remember that this does not happen often and, as such, we remember the names of those killed 20 years ago on Monday. There are thousands of people killed elsewhere whose names we will never know.
