COLONIA DIGNIDAD Reality vs. Movie

Maybe the CIA Could Learn Something From Faulkner

2015-03-09T14:00:00.001+10:00

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"The past is never dead. It's not even past," William Faulkner wrote in 1951, two years after winning the Nobel Prize for literature. It's one of his best-known lines. sk
___

If you have not heard of Chile's secret torture camp ColoniaDignidad, don't worry. Most North Americans haven't either, along with the rest of the world.

But this true story of a South American detainment and torture colony (opened in 1961 as a "pleasant" rural Andean community and subject of a soon to be released movie) is still kept secret by the governments of Chile, Germany and the United States.

Today there remain government documents held by all three countries involved that could tell us what happened at Dignidad, years later officially renamed Villa Baviera by the Chilean government. Most critical are classified internal reports that still haven't seen the light of day.

British actress Emma Watson stars in Colonia

THE SISTER OF AN AMERICAN math professor spent nearly thirty years trying to uncover why her brother, Boris Weisfeiler, disappeared while hiking near the colony in 1985; he was kidnapped and killed, she was finally told.

But today, she and others still demand complete information about her brother, while governments tightly keep their classified papers to themselves.

Boris Weisfeiler

In my own research while writing books in the series Civil Rights Mystery Sleuth, it angered me to learn CIA and other U.S. intelligence personnel participated at the Chilean site, invited by Chile's ruthless dictator Augusto Pinochet, who the United States helped put into power by aiding the overthrow of the country's democratically elected president, Salvador Allende.

U.S. agents were at Dignidad early-on to conduct biological weapons and related research. The renamed colony wasn't shut down until 2005. How long were we there? What were we doing?

We'll never get answers to such questions until all classified documents are released about this colony once opened by a Nazi supporter, who eighteen years after WWII escaped Germany on official charges of malicious child abuse.

Augusto Pinochet

The 1953 "murder" of Frank Olson becomes more interesting to me when you consider this strange event in the context of Dignidad. Olson was an early figurehead in the development of biological weapons; how he died was reportedly covered up for years by the CIA and military intelligence.

But much of Olson's research had to do with early projects involving mind altering drugs, torture and use of uninformed and illegally detained subjects, all of which went on at Dignidad and countless other Chilean torture camps (and in other countries, as well), one author states.

Only recently did partial information come out via declassified documents, as told in the book, A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments, written by H.P. Albarelli, Jr., a graduate of Antioch Law School who writes and produces documentaries on this and related topics.

Frank Olson

***

THE OLSON CASE BURST UPON the public's consciousness in the mid-1970s, along with other revelations at the time concerning the CIA and military domestic spying and medical experimentation upon unwitting victims, after a landmark expose by New York Times reporter Seymour Hersch.

The Olson family started asking questions about Frank Olson's death (reported officially as a suicide), and so did their lawyers, government commissions and even some CIA agents, according to Albarelli who paints a grim picture about what Olson knew, and why he was killed.

While Olson died before the camp was opened, he still knew and helped develop the drugs and testing procedures used in the controversial Projects Artichoke and MKULTRA, later undoubtedly used on tortured anti-government, Jews and others detained at the colony

Drugs that were already being unethically and illegally tested in the United States and other parts of the world before Dignidad opened its gates. The Chilean camp would become just another venue for these terrifying, repulsive acts.

Unlike Olson, Weisfeiler was a victim of this Chilean torture camp. Was the internationally renowned math professor working for someone else, looking for evidence of nuclear weapons? His backpack later found near the colony's entrance reportedly contained radiation detection equipment. Why would a backpacker "on vacation in the remote Andes" carry such supplies? This appears possible, since he had first worked for a research contract located next to Princeton University. Was he testing remote viewing equipment for this entity?

It has been written that nuclear weapons "of mass destruction" were being developed by German scientists at Dignidad, a rumor substantiated by academic historian Peter Levenda, author of Ratline: Soviet Spies Nazi Priests, and The Hitler Legacy.

But then perhaps this former Soviet Jew and Russian Refusenik, who'd left his country to work in the United States, was trying to find and help other Jewish captives escape?

***

LAST WEEK I FOUND INTERESTING the Central Intelligence Agency's announcement of organizational restructuring, "ending the traditional separation between spies and analysts, while also creating a new division to handle cyber warfare." Thousands of spies and CIA analysts are to be reassigned to new posts, marking one of the most significant changes to the agency’s core structure in its 67-year history, the public was told.

Under this new model spies and analysts should start working together, allowing the CIA to “cover the entire universe, regionally and functionally,” Director John Brennan said in a media briefing last week.

As the proud owner of an MBA, I can say that such reorganization makes good business sense, because it follows the more popular horizontal rather than top down structure, favored for the past umpteen years by American corporations. So maybe better decision-making will emerge at the CIA, once these changes take hold.

We can hope --

BECAUSE THE MISGUIDED, VILLAINOUS DECISION-making that occurred back when Frank Olson was killed in 1953, the decisions to give men, women and children dangerous experimental drugs without their knowledge or consent, and the decisions to participate at Colonia Dignidad (and then grant asylum to American assassin Michael Townley, who worked for both the CIA and for Chile's secret police or DINA) were bunk.

Bunk is too nice of a word.
***

With all of this reshuffling of responsibilities, will the CIA's irresponsible culture change? Will these questions ever be answered?

In the United States, Chile and Germany, various human rights groups and organizations of activists, the relatives of those who were tortured and “disappeared,” and torture survivors are pressuring the Chilean government for an end to secrecy.

One organization, Londres 38, Espacio de Memoria, released a statement last summer asserting the importance of investigating crimes committed at Colonia Dignidad.

“On the grounds of the former Colonia Dignidad, evidence of crimes still exist. We demand that the state, the government and the judiciary investigate the files that have remained hidden, reported by the media through accurate testimony,” the statement says.

It also calls for declassification of testimony related to torture in detention centers obtained by the Valech Commission — an investigation ordered by Chilean President Ricardo Lagos between 2003 and 2005 , as well as the lifting of restrictions pertaining to the Rettig Commission report in 1991, commissioned by President Patricio Aylwin, which focused on detainees who were murdered or “disappeared.”

Likely it will be years, if ever, before citizens of he United States, Chile and Germany learn what really happened at this remote colony. At least a movie starring Emma Watson is set for opening this fall, and it looks like this story could shed some light.

In its announced organizational shift, the CIA might consult the work of Faulkner who basically told us the past is the present. And if so, as this author claimed years ago regarding another torture colony -- Mississippi, the Central Intelligence Agency should start its own truth and reconciliation process, something that Mississippi has refused to do thus far. They could even name this new project FAULKNER, after the southern literary AND cultural genius who got it right.

Susan Klopfer, author of The Plan

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2015-03-03T16:10:00.001+10:00

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Thanks, and good reading. Susan Klopfer

Was Des Moines, Iowa attorney David W. Belin murdered for what he knew about mkultra? Frank Olson?

2015-02-26T02:31:00.004+10:00

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David Belin, an estate attorney who never prosecuted a criminal case, was prominent in the investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and later in the investigation of the 'doping' of unwitting subjects, via mkultra. Was Belin, himself, murdered in later years?

I am very interested in David W. Belin. He was a Des Moines, IA lawyer who served in an executive czar position on both the Warren and Rockefeller Commissions. Both groups were not known for their truthful "discovery" of what took place with the JFK assassination, and then (Rockefeller) of what the CIA and military intelligence communities were up to, regarding the "doping" of unwitting research victims (citizens--some women and children) for their chemical/biological weapons development.'

(Some of this testing investigated by the Rockefeller Commission likely took place outside of the United States, at Colonia Dignidad, hence my interest in what Belin must have known about the Colony, where CIA documents have indicated evidence of the presence of Josef Mengele, the Nazi "Angel of Death." The first to expose the truth about this "research" was a human rights commission report by the United Nations released in October 1976, reporting the use of special psychoactive drugs on subjects. The UN commission found that the DINA-sponsored torture chambers at the colony were being used as a research center to continue Mengele's work of refining the art of torture.)

But back to Belin, who was was known for his quick to anger temperament, and for having a mean streak. Such people are often more easy to flip! He was a chief apologist for both commissions, and may have been the only person knowing the eventual truth about Frank Olson, a CIA agent who was murdered, after working for years on mkultra and related biological/chemical weapons research. (Olson may have come to Jesus at the last moment, wanting to repent for his own involvement in mkultra and related project artichoke, and to keep him from talking, was pushed from the window of a New York hotel by a close associate.)

Belin was also known as the 'inventor' of the magic bullet theory, the notion that a single bullet killed John F. Kennedy and wounded Gov. John Connoly, as well. In one lecture, he explained it came to him one night in a dream. "He stated he dreamed the wounds to the president and the governor were the result of a single shot. He said he rushed to the commission the next day to tell Arlen Specter what he had conceived while slumbering. Specter immediately recognized the importance of Belin's achievement and proceeded to build the commission's findings around it. David Belin's dream became the foundation for the Report's scientific findings.:"
Read more about his theory, here --

http://kennedymustbekilled.com/meeting-david-belin_288.html

Years later, Belin had the job of covering up the important findings regarding first, the JFK assassination, and then even later the Olson affair. But did he eventually change his mind about what the truth was, regarding JFK and Olson? Did he flip? I think he did. Here's partly why:

I've been looking at related documents and papers, and this morning (I guess for the fun of it) wrote a brief review of Belin's pseudo authoritative book on the Warren Commission. It's here:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R2AG94EOD43XZP for your pleasure.

Also, I posted a very lengthy and interesting Amazon review of his book by a conspiracy researcher. From his review, you'll learn more about Belin. Obviously, this researcher hadn't heard about Belin's mysterious fall from a ladder in a hotel room, when Belin was a very old man ...

The second review is here: http://shar.es/1WJewu (in my blog ebooksfromsusan.com/blog).

Colonia Dignidad Draws Attention of "Fired" Dallas News Reporter Character in The Plan - a Novel

2015-02-23T12:39:00.000+10:00

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Michael Townley, an American assassin

Reporter Sara Mercury (a character in The Plan) fired for "too much time spent on the JFK assassination," turns her interest to American assassin, Michael Townley (shown here), and wonders what role he might have played in the strange 1999 death of Des Moines, Iowa lawyer David W. Belin, an attorney for the Warren and Rockefeller Commissions. She also investigates Townley's role at Colonia Dignidad, a torture community in Chile.

David W. Belin died of a freakish accident in a hotel room, after doing critical legal work for the Warren Commission and Rockefeller Commissions.

***

SEVERAL CHAPTERS in Part II of my historical-paranormal fiction book, THE PLAN, focus on Colonia Dignidad, a terrifying community that once existed in the South American country of Chile. Character Sara Mercury, “fired from the Dallas Morning News for writing too many articles on the JFK assassination,” is an expat living in Cuenca, Ecuador. When she learns that a new friend (character Tara Means, the widow of a gay black murdered American civil rights lawyer) is dating a questionable stranger, who once worked at Dignidad, Sara’s antennas rise!
***

So what does Mr. Belin have to do with Colonia Dignidad? Maybe something, and maybe nothing. Either way, it's all kind of interesting. ...

To give you a better picture of what really took place at this historical torture colony, it helps to know more about its leader, a former German Nazi. Real-life news reporters only began writing about Paul Schäfer in earnest after he died. Until then, he’d been staying under the radar, except for occasional reports by aggressive international news and human rights organizations.

Benjamin Schneider of the Santiago Times writing for Merco Press, reported in 2010 that Paul Schäfer had died, after serving only five years of a 33-year prison term, which included 20 years for the abuse of 25 children. Schäfer had been accused of sexually abusing as many as 10,000 children over a period of 40 years at Colonia Dignidad.

(One former victim, Wolfgang Müller, responding to Schäfer's death, told the newspaper La Tercera, “the biggest pederast in the world died today in Chile.”)

Schäfer, fleeing charges of child abuse in Germany arrived in Chile at the invitation of the pre-Pinochet government, in 1963, and founded the “Sociedad Benefactora y Educacional Dignidad”, (Dignity Charitable and Education Society) which later became the cult-like “Colonia Dignidad” (Dignity Colony), a group of German immigrants, some of whom had come with him from Germany, who settled a rural area about 225 miles south of Santiago, near the city of Parral.

He ruled the colony with an iron fist and called himself “The Permanent Uncle”, the Santiago reporter, Schneider, wrote in a lengthy article about this frightening despot:

“Television and telephones were banned. Men and women worked separately, children were separated from their parents, and sex was forbidden unless one had the unlikely permission of Schäfer. Citizens were encouraged to confess, both their own sins and the sins of others. Hard labour was said to bring one closer to God. The community was largely isolated from the outside world.”

A 2008 INVESTIGATIVE report by Bruce Falconer in The American Scholar noted that the colony’s population was mobilized by Schäfer to fight against an imaginary enemy. Many of the villagers had come from Germany and remembered the threat of Russia, so this was not hard to convince them of this enemy:

Schäfer had done an excellent job of hiding the abuse., and even making good! For instance, located in a poor rural region, the community constructed a hospital that was open to many of the poorer neighbors; hence, the community received and exploited many tax exemption benefits as a non-profit charitable organization.

***

DURING AUGOSTO Pinochet’s 1973-1990 terrifying military dictatorship, Colonia Dignidad collaborated with the DINA, the government secret police, as holding center and torture site.

They were aided by American assassin Michael V. Townley, the son of a Chilean Ford executive who also reportedly was a CIA agent in Chile and Venezuela. Townley later would plan the execution in Washington, D.C. of Orlando Letelier, former Chilean ambassador to the United States. As a part of his plea bargain, Townley received immunity from further prosecution and escaped extradition to Argentina to stand trial for the assassination of Chilean general Carlos Prats and his wife.

Townley was also convicted in absentia, by an Italian court for carrying out the 1975 Rome murder attempt on Bernardo Leighton. Townley worked in producing chemical weapons for Chilean dictator General Pinochet's use against political opponents. He currently is in U.S. witness protection.

***

In my upcoming book, GRINGOLANDIA (second in the Civil Rights Mystery Sleuth series), Sara continues her hunt for information on Colonia Dignidad, and possible ties of Townley to the JFK assassination.

Here's why:

She believes this American assassin was working for the CIA, besides Chile’s DINA (secret police), and since he can be traced to working for David Atlee Phillips, a Central Intelligence Agency officer for 25 years, and the CIA's chief of all operations in the Western hemisphere, Sara is sure “there’s something about Townley that makes me think I’d better visit Chile.”

Phillips is thought by some JFK conspiracy theorists to be the mastermind of the president’s assassination. The agent worked at the Mexico City CIA station, and was personally responsible for monitoring the Cuban and Russian embassies when the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald (or Oswald's double) reportedly visited there a few weeks before the assassination.

In fact, Townley may have assassinated numerous witnesses to the JFK crime, Sara tells her new friend, Irving Critchfield (main character in GringoLandia, TBR fall of 2015), perhaps including David William Belin, an attorney for the Warren Commission and the later Rockefeller Commission.

As chief executive director of the Rockefeller Commission, only Belin held confidential information on the murder of Frank Olson, the designated “first” victim of MKULTRA, a secret CIA program to develop and test mind-altering drugs, among other weapons.

So maybe Belin made it safely through his bullying-work on the Warren Commission, and then "bought it" right before he was scheduled to give an interview to a national author. Sara's sure this lawwyer knew too much about the CIA's secret operations, including Olson's "suicide."

SEE NEW YORK TIMES OBIT - HERE (NOBODY WAS ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT BELIN'S DEATH, BACK THEN.

Belen died in a freakish accident in 1999. Sara believes she can learn more about Belin and Olson, IF she can find Olson’s step-granddaughter (character) who, she learns, leads a drumming circle in Vilcabamba, Ecuador, a small pueblo five hours south of Cuenca!

Sara hopes her new relationship with Critchfield will help!

***

DURING PINOCHET'S reign, a number of opponents of the government “disappeared” in the area. In 1985, Jewish-US citizen Boris Weisfeiler also disappeared while taking a vacation in the area, and in THE PLAN, Sara realizes this provides still another intriguing story to take on as a freelance investigative writer.

***

Once the Pinochet dictatorship ended in 1990, Schäfer fled to Argentina seven years later, after escaping numerous police raids on Colonia Dignidad by hiding in secret bunkers underground. He was tracked down in 2005 and brought back to face justice in Chile. At the time, the country’s Interior Ministry Undersecretary Belisario Velasco attributed some responsibility for the delay to “a network of people involved with Schäfer who did not want an investigation to ever occur, much less get to the courts”.

Sara wonders if the CIA might also have been reticent in releasing documents on Colonia Dignidad, as well as on Townley and Weisfeiler.

While much remains unknown about Schäfer’s activities, the last 20 years have brought a large amount of evidence to light. In 1995, more than three tons of weapons were found at Colonia Dignidad, including 85 submachine guns, 60 hand grenades, and rocket launchers.

Colonia Dignidad has continued under the name of Villa Baviera since 1990. But when Schäfer finally died AND WENT TO HELL, the community wanted nothing to do with this monster, and rejected a proposal to bury him on their grounds.

SUSAN

P.S. YOU CAN GET A FREE LOOK INSIDE THE PLAN ON AMAZON --

US AMAZON - CLICK HERE

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HISTORY: Dictatorships vs. Democracy; Look to Chile for Answers, Author Says

2015-02-20T06:48:00.001+10:00

Review: The dictator's shadow: life under Augosto Pinochet

The dictator's shadow: life under Augusto Pinochet
(Amazon Link)

Recently, I’ve been doing personal research on a concentration camp that was hidden in the deep Andes of Chile, Colonia Dignidad. It is a place I’ve written about in the past (The Plan) and the theme continues through GringoLandia (to be released this summer), and a third book in my Civil Rights Mystery Sleuth series (yet unnamed).

One of the books that has drawn my attention is by author Heraldo Muñoz, who draws a damning portrait of the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet as an officer of "limited intellect" in his book, The dictator's shadow: life under Augusto Pinochet.

Interestingly, Muñoz describes Pinochet as “above all else, a survivor." While this dictator, who was put into place with the help of the U.K., and then supported by the United States, was raised in an upper middle-class family, Pinochet “reluctantly joined the coup against Allende,” then systematically pushed aside his fellow conspirators (and executed his political rivals) to seize sole control of the country.

What were the qualities that put Pinochet in this position? Munoz writes, his assets actually were uninspiring: "Insensitive and sardonic to those below him, he was crafty, submissive, and obsequious with his betters. Though Pinochet was anti-Communist, his ideology was self-interest." Once Pinochet seized power, as jets bombed the presidential palace and Allende committed suicide, the situation quickly turned grim. Several of the worst human rights brutalities recounted in this book -- corralling opponents into the national soccer stadium in Santiago and executing more than 100 of them, the international plot known as Operation Condor to track down and kill dissidents -- have been documented at length elsewhere.

But Muñoz still tells these stories in chilling detail. For instance, to advance his career before the coup, Pinochet used to visit regularly with Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and his family, bringing presents to the children. Yet a few years later, the author alleges, Pinochet ordered the assassination of Letelier, who was killed by a car bomb in Washington's Sheridan Circle in 1976, the crime overseen by Michael V. Townley, now protected by the United States, in exchange for his ratting out of his criminal partners.

Even though democracy has returned to Chile for nearly 20 years, the wounds of Pinochet's 17-year reign are still being treated; and don’t be surprised that the dead dictator still has many citizen and government supporters. Recently, dozens of Chilean legislators spent hours honoring the former dictator on the anniversary of his death.

Why does the United States back a “Pinochet” over an “Allende?” It is a question we must continue to discuss. For some of our own leaders, simply put, it is easier to control a dictator than a democratic, liberal leader. But in the end, who wins? Joshua Parlow, in his review of this book, notes the impact on the Chilean economy looked good at first, but in the end democracy worked better.

Click here to read a complete review of the Muñoz book, by Joshua Partlow

http://www.iei.uchile.cl/publicaciones/63720/the-dictators-shadow-life-under-augusto-pinochet

From The Washington Post's Book World / washingtonpost.com

History Colonia Dignidad: Orwellian Story From the Land of Pinochet; Three Young Journalist Defy Regime

2015-02-18T09:09:00.000+10:00

While researching to learn more about Michael V. Townley, I ran into this fascinating blog that attests for the strong spirit that some people carry, even under seige. Here's a quote, along with the link to the full blog: sk

Reblogged from Notes on the Americas: Orwell in Chile

This month marks the 65^th anniversary of George Orwell’s death, and here’s one of the lesser-known stories of the great writer’s legacy, courtesy of the Pinochet regime in Chile.It was 1983, the military dictatorship had been in power nearly ten years and the first stirrings of protest on a national level were about to explode into demonstrations up and down the length of Chile’s narrow territory. Three young journalists—two Chilean, one American—began an afterhours project to translate and publish Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece, 1984.

From Notes on the Americas: Orwell in Chile

Continue --

https://notesontheamericas.wordpress.com/2015/01/23/orwell-in-chile/#comment-1163

History Colonia Dignidad: American Assassin Michael Townley Worked in Chile for DINE

2015-02-17T05:41:00.001+10:00

Michael Townley (Google images)

An American assassin, the son of an automotive executive living in Santiago, Chile, designed the torture chamber for Colonia Dignidad. Michael Townley, now in witness protection somewhere in the U.S., was connected with the CIA.

You can read more about him, here -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Townley and I will be posting more about him as I complete my research for Gringolandia, the second novel in the Civil Rights Mystery Sleuth series (The Plan is the first book in the series.)

Townley's is an ugly story. He's protected well, and only the CIA knows why. As I read about him and discover how he became involved in an early age with DINE (Chile's secret police), I can't help but believe he knocked off more than one of the witnesses in the JFK assassination. What do you think? sk

LINK TO CHILLING COLONIA DIGNIDAD VIDEO ANSWERS SOME QUESTIONS, BUT NOT ALL

2015-02-13T06:55:00.000+10:00

Entry to Colonia Dignidad (photo). Click below to see the video.

Here's a fascinating documentary video on Colonia Dignidad. Chilling. It nswers some questions, of course, but no one will ever know what all happened at this horrid concentration camp -- who was kidnapped, tortured and killed. As some CIA and DINA documents are released, we will learn more. But will this knowledge deter a repeat of what took place?

LINK -- http://youtu.be/5oObdFq78_s

Grim History Colonia Dignidad--Are You Ready for the Movie Colonia, Starring Emma Watson?

2015-02-13T01:51:00.002+10:00

Note: Colonia is an upcoming thriller directed by Oscar-winner Florian Gallenberger (which he co-wrote with Torsten Wenzel). The film, based on torture colony Colonia Dignidad, and starring Emma Watson, Daniel Brühl and Michael Nyqvist, is based on true events set in 1973 in Chile, about a German woman who was kidnapped by General Augusto Pinochet's secret police, DINA, while searching for her husband. Principal photography began on October 2, 2014 in Luxembourg; filming also took place in Germany, Argentina and Chile.

Scene from the movie, Colonia, starring Emma Watson

HAVE YOU EVER heard of this place in the remote Chilean Andes called Colonial Dignidad? I hadn't, until doing rhistorical esearch for my book, The Plan.

I was so intrigued with its history, the I wrote a subtheme in my book (about the murder of two lawyers) around this place in South America, a strange community that lies deep in the Andean foothills of Chile’s central valley, where a group of German expatriates once lived—all members of a utopian experiment. They resided at Colonia Dignidad for decades, separate from others who lived around them, but were widely known and admired, and respected for their cleanliness, their wealth, and their work ethic.

Their neighbors, however, had no idea of what was going on behind the fences that separated this community from the other Chilean families.

* * *

In my book, The Plan, Clinton Moore, Dr. Dan Bell, “Frank,” and Tara Means are fictional characters. But Dr. Boris Weisfeiler was a REAL Russian-born mathematician who lived in the United States before going missing in Chile in 1985, at the age of 43. He had taught at Penn State University until he went on his biking trek in the Andes where he was captured by colony guards, tortured and killed at Colonia Dignidad.

* * *

Most North Americans have never heard of Colonia Dignidad or Dr. Weisfeiler, and that included me, until I started doing research for The Plan. Then after learning about this colony, and its possible ties to the United States, one of my purposes in writing this book (set for release in early October), became to learn more and share my new knowledge about this secret torture colony in South America.

(I have to wonder about involvement of the CIA at Colonia Dignidad. Were they using these prisoners as subjects in mkultra (artichoke, bluebird, etc.) experiments. I believe there is a strong possibility, and will be trying to find answers.)

Meanwhile, I will be blogging about Colonia Dignidad in the next few weeks. And then I will have a surprise announcement to make! So please follow and I will enjoy hearing your comments.

Here's how Colonia Dignidad got started ...

Part I Paul Schaefer Starts the Movement

The land comprising Colonia Dignidad stretches across 70 square miles, rising gently from farmland to low, forested hills, against a backdrop of snow capped mountains. Today this community has a new name—Villa Baviera—and is becoming integrated into Chile.

But for decades, it was totally isolated. The only connection that its members had to the outside world was a long dirt road that wound through tree farms and fields of wheat, corn, and soybeans.

“The road passed through a guarded gate, and led to the center of the property, where the Germans lived in an orderly Bavarian-style village of flower gardens, water fountains, and cream-colored buildings with orange tile roofs,” writes Bruce Falconer, for The American Scholar.

This researcher describes today’s colony as comprised of modern apartment complexes, two schools, a chapel, several meetinghouses, and a bakery that produces fresh cakes, breads, and cheeses.

“There [once] were numerous animal stables, two landing strips, at least one airplane, a hydroelectric power station, and mills and factories of various kinds, including a highly profitable gravel mill that supplied raw materials for numerous road-building projects throughout Chile. On the north side of the village was a hospital, where the Germans provided free care to thousands of patients in one of the country’s poorest areas.”

Who made all of this possible? And how did something so good turn into something so bad? Was the United States involved? (The answer is 'yes.')

How was American assassin Michael Townley involved?

What happened to Penn State math professor Boris Weisfeiler when he got too close to the compound?

Here is some of what we do know:

A charismatic preacher named Paul Schaefer, now deceased, founded Colonia Dignidad in the early 1960s. Only until several years ago, Schaefer remained in charge.

While he lived most of his adult life in Chile, he spoke little Spanish. His followers mostly spoke German, and the colonos of Colonia Dignidad, as they were called, dressed in traditional German peasant clothes—the men in wool pants and suspenders, the women in homemade dresses and headscarves.

Schaefer wore newer, more modern clothes that denoted his stature, according to Falconer.

“His manner was serious; he seldom smiled. The effect only deepened the sense of mystery that surrounded him.”

Outsiders were rarely invited into the grounds of the colony. An old Chilean newsreel, filmed at Schaefer’s invitation in 1981, gives a rare glimpse of life inside the community, showing it to be a utopia in full and happy bloom.

Schaefer, living out his life as a prisoner before he died.

“A carpenter assembles a new chair for the Colonia’s school. A woman in a white apron bakes German-style torts and pastries in the kitchen. Teenaged boys clear a new field for planting. Children laugh and splash in a lake. Schaefer himself, wearing a white suit and brown aviator sunglasses, takes the camera crew on a tour. Standing next to the Colonia’s flour mill, he extols the quality of German machinery.”

The television crew is led to a petting zoo, where the reporter feeds chunks of bread to baby deer and plays with the colonos’ collection of pet owls. “The newsreel concludes with a performance by a 15-piece chamber orchestra composed of young, female colonos in flowing white skirts and colorful blouses. The music is beautiful and expertly played.”

The newsreel should have stopped right then; the reporters should have packed up their equipment and gone home! It was all a lie.

But how would they have known about the torture that was going on at Dignidad, with all of these attempts to make life look so good for these colons?

It took years for the authorities to learn the truth, and then too many more years before they shut down this camp and imprisoned Schaeffer.

What went on in this Andean inferno and why? What is being said in today's trials taking place in Santiago? Was the Penn State professor merely in the wrong place at the wrong time?

* * *
What goes on in this remote village today?

I’ll write more about Colonia Dignidad in Part II. Also in the near future, I will travel to this destination and blog from there. For now, you can learn more about this mysterious community (and about a Mississippi lawyer who was murdered, and other conspiracies) in The Plan, first book in the series Civil Rights Mystery Sleuths. Be ready for the movie!!!

P.S. I've put up a Pinterest Page showing photos of Colonia Dignidad, Emma Watson, and more. Take a look!

https://www.pinterest.com/sklopfer542/colonia-dignidad-the-book-ebook-too/

Related Facebook fan page on The Plan includes Colonia Dignidad, too --

https://www.facebook.com/book.theplan