When the news trickled in from Argentina and then Chile that a fugitive from justice, Paul Schaeffer (no, not the Letterman guy) was finally apprehended and extradited from the land of Peron to the land of Pinochet, I was quite frankly relieved.
And then the revelations about a horde of documents and weapons, and my relief turned to anxiety.
I visited Paul Schaeffer in June, 1979. It was a cool winter's day in Chile, and I was wearing a tan trench coat so that I would be a very recognizable figure should anything go wrong. I was not an invited guest, or an expected one, that Sunday morning. I had read about Schaeffer's notorious German estate in the Andes Mountains in a much-maligned book by Ladislas Farago, Aftermath. Farago's focus was on the ratlines that enabled Nazi war criminals to escape European justice by providing transport, false documents, and visas to countries in South America, the Middle East, and Asia. Some of the more famous alumni of the ratlines include Dr Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death at Auschwitz, who wound up in Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil; Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyons, who wound up running the secret police in Bolivia; and Alois Brunner, a sadistic Nazi mass murderer who is believed to be living in Syria today.
Almost as an aside, Farago mentioned the bizarre German outpost and safe house close to the town of Parral, in Chile. Run by an ex-Luftwaffe medic, Paul Schaeffer — an accused pedophile and Baptist minister on the run from the German courts — it covered thousands of acres in the Andes near the border of Chile and Argentina. It was populated almost entirely by German nationals, and ran a clinic that was free to the local townspeople two days a week when I was there. (A free German clinic, run by a former Luftwaffe medic? Is it safe?)
According to Farago, the "Colony of Righteousness" or Colonia Dignidad was a weird combination of voodoo and fascism in the middle of the Andean forests. There was something forbidding about the place, and as I searched further for information on the estate, I was informed that it did exist, was run by German doctors, and that it staunchly supported the Pinochet regime. Indeed, it was claimed that Schaeffer and Pinochet were friends, and that Colonia Dignidad was a favorite hangout of Nazi-loving Chilean military officers and members of DINA, the secret police.
Article comments
1 - Aaman
Very interesting - thank you for the information - a link to the recent news might be helpful for those unfamiliar with the story
los desaperecidos - must read more on this topic
2 - Eric Olsen
wow, powerful stuff Peter - thanks and welcome!
3 - Steven List
Hi Peter,
I read Unholy Alliance a few years ago as part of research I was doing on Colonia Dignidad. Fascinating book, and well researched. Didn't know about Sinister Forces, am very much looking forward to reading that, as well.
I am in the midst of directing a short film about Boris Weisfeiler's disappearance in Chile. We shot the first half this past weekend in L.A., and will be filming the rest in New Mexico in September. I wrote the script after first hearing a report on NPR about the case, and then meeting with Olga Weisfeiler in Boston.
Hopefully the film will serve to generate some much overdue media attention on this case.
I'd love to talk with you about the project, since it's intended as the basis of a feature. What's the best way to get in contact? Feel free to email me at the address I've included here (if it comes through.)
Best,
Steven List
4 - silverlynx
Hey Peter,
Maybe with Pinochet's death this week, there may be a stirring of the coals which might spark up some interest in the whole Colonia Dignidad history and scandal. And what's up with our Fuhrer, "Dubya" buying 98,000 acres of land in Paraguay? Is there any kind of connection there? Get back on some talk shows with any updates. These other posts are kind of old...hope you get this message.
5 - The Colony
This just hit Businesswire. Hopefully people will take some notice. Go to the website to see the movie.
A Real Life "SAW" - THE COLONY Depicts Kidnapping/Torture of U.S. Citizen in Chile
Family Wants Schwarzenegger to Press for Investigation with Chilean President
Los Angeles, CA (May 6, 2008) -- THE COLONY, an award-winning short film concerning the disappearance of Penn State professor Boris Weisfeiler in Chile, will make its Northern California debut at the Santa Cruz Film Festival on May 13th. But the filmmakers aren't seeking awards - they hope the screening will prompt Governor Schwarzenegger to bring up the case when he meets with Chilean President Michele Bachelet on June 12th.
Boris Weisfeiler vanished while backpacking in Chile in 1985. Although the official U.S. position was that he drowned, embassy staffers in Santiago long suspected that Weisfeiler was picked up by the Chilean military, who thought he was a spy, and turned over to Colonia Dignidad -- a sinister religious sect run by former Nazis and used as a political prison by the Pinochet regime. Neither the Chilean government or the U.S. actively pursued an investigation into these reports.
"I first heard about the case on Public Radio International in 2001, and I couldn't believe there were still Nazis down there killing and terrorizing people, and nothing was being done about it," says THE COLONY writer/director Steven List. His outrage led him to contact Weisfeiler's sister, Olga, who'd been pursuing her own search for nearly a decade.
The resultant film is a harrowing look at what likely happened to Weisfeiler in the notorious torture center, and his sister's efforts to discover the truth about his fate from indifferent U.S. officials.
Amnesty International estimates that more than 100 opponents of Pinochet's dictatorship vanished at Colonia Dignidad. Paul Shaeffer, the former Nazi who founded the colony, was captured in 2005 and awaits trial in Chile on political murder charges. However, the case is stalled due to opposition from government elements still loyal to Pinochet. Shaeffer, who is 86, is pleading senility to avoid further prosecution, and the judge in the case has rejected offers of help from U.S. agencies, including the FBI.
Olga Weisfeiler worries that since Shaeffer quite literally knows "where the bodies are buried," he will simply be allowed to die in prison, taking the secrets of what happened at Colonia Dignidad with him to the grave.
"I would like to ask Governor Schwarzenegger to bring up the issue of my brother's disappearance with President Bachelet," says Weisfeiler. Though he isn't a federal official, "An inquiry by (Schwarzenegger) in such a setting will put pressure on public officials here and in Chile to finally discover what really happened to my brother and who is responsible for it."
THE COLONY screens on May 13th, at 2:00 PM. Press who cannot attend may use this link to watch the film on-line.
Steven List will appear on the Documentary and Docu-Drama Filmmaking panel on Saturday, May 10th at 3:00 PM.
Visit Santa Cruz Film Festival for details.
For information on the Weisfeiler case.
6 - Mario Fernandez
To this day they remain a dark power and the Bachelet goverment refuses to touch them , their money made by illegal means still growing free of taxes, really something out of the ordinary yet with the complicity of the political sistem in this case the Concertacion.