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Photo by Natacha LSP via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo by Natacha LSP via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo by Natacha LSP via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo by Natacha LSP via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo by Natacha LSP via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo by Natacha LSP via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo by Natacha LSP via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo by Natacha LSP via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
colonia religiosa alemana en Chile dirigida por Paul Schäfer, que sirvió como lugar de tortura bajo la dictadura de Pinochet
Background
Colonia Dignidad (Spanish pronunciation: [koËlonja diÉ¡niËdad]; lit.â'Dignity Colony') was an isolated colony established in post-World War II Chile by emigrant Germans which became notorious for the internment, torture, and murder of dissidents during the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s while under the leadership of German emigrant preacher Paul Schäfer. Colonia Dignidad has been described as a "state within a state".
Schäfer and members of the colony were deeply religious and followed the teachings of William Branham. The main legal economic activity of the colony was agriculture; at various periods it also was home to a school, a hospital, two airstrips, a restaurant, and a power station.
Colonia Dignidad's longest continuous leader, Paul Schäfer, arrived in the colony in 1961.
