The Colonia Dignidad

Strange Matters Podcast

Campfire Audio Productions

Science, History, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences

4.4 • 987 Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2016

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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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Transcript

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0:00.0	And the Hello and welcome to the Strange Matters podcast. Here at Strange Matters
0:22.2	we discuss everything that is bizarre, mysterious, and unexplained.
0:26.0	I'm Sean and I will be the host for this discussion.
0:30.0	In this episode we will be talking about the dark and disturbing history
0:35.0	behind a secretive commune known as the colonial dignitad.
0:39.0	This compound was originally set up as a place of community welfare in harmony, but eventually
0:45.0	what was going on behind its fences would be discovered, shocking and horrifying everyone
0:49.7	who learned of its dark secrets.
0:52.2	For this show we will be discussing the rise of the colonial dignitad and its leader, Paul Schaefer.
0:58.1	A twisted an evil man who formed a cult-like organization of brainwashed and broken people all to satisfy his perverse desires,
1:06.4	a reign of terror that lasted not just a few years, but several decades.
1:11.7	This episode was suggested to us by Eric, one of our listeners actually, and not my co-host.
1:17.0	I do want to give a warning to our listeners that this episode's topic contains mention of violence and sexual abuse and will most likely be
1:24.7	upsetting to some. That being said I believe this is an interesting piece of
1:28.7	history that many people are most likely completely unaware of.
1:33.0	Before I get started though, I would like to remind those listening that Strange Matters
1:36.4	podcast is made possible by our generous listeners who are supporting the podcast through
1:40.8	our Patreon page. We would like to thank our newest supporters of the show,
1:45.1	Ryan, Quentin, and Stephanie. On Patreon you can donate as little as $1 a month towards the show,
1:51.2	and as an incentive, all of of our patrons will help decide which
1:54.4	upcoming topics we should focus on as well as getting access to exclusive bonus
1:58.4	episodes. We are happy to announce that we have already reached our first goal, which will help cover the cost of maintaining our site and audio content.
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