The Colonia Dignidad

Strange Matters Podcast

In 1961, a German man named Paul Schäfer formed a community in an isolated region in Chile. Known as the Colonia Dignidad, or Dignity Colony, this large complex was constructed originally as a place of community welfare and harmony, which promoted free schooling and health care for all. Behind it’s barbed wire fences however, Paul Schäfer was secretly creating a living nightmare of violence and abuse for those trapped inside.

The Colonia Dignidad would operate independently and secretly for three decades. During that time thousands of people were forced to suffer cruelties under their harsh leader. Schäfer, a former Nazi who served in World War II, turned his “Dignity Colony” into his own personal paradise of sadism and torture. Those who suffered the worst in that time was the young children, on whom Schäfer would turn his perverse attention to for years. Disturbingly, both the Chilean and German governments turned a blind eye as to what was going on inside the colony, leaving their people to the whims of a deeply disturbed man.

It took nearly thirty years until those on the outside finally started to stand up to Schäfer and work to take down the evils occurring inside the Colonia Dignidad. Though the evil place was eventually disbanded, and its leader finally brought to face up to his awful crimes, thousands of innocent people were still left to put together their shattered lives.

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