With its sloping, red-tiled roofs, manicured lawns, and a quaint shop offering homemade ginger biscuits, Villa Baviera presents the image of an idyllic German-style village nestled in the Chilean heartland.
However, beneath this picturesque facade lies a troubling history.
Formerly known as Colonia Dignidad, this settlement served as the base for a secretive religious sect led by Paul Schäfer, a figure accused of manipulation, abuse, and collaboration with the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship.
Schäfer, who established the colony in 1961, enforced a strict regime of harsh punishments and humiliation upon its German residents.
Children were reportedly separated from their parents and subjected to forced labor from a young age.
Schäfer also faced accusations of sexually abusing numerous children within the colony.
Following the 1973 coup led by Gen. Pinochet, Colonia Dignidad became a site for the torture of political opponents in clandestine basements.
Many of these political prisoners disappeared without a trace.
Schäfer died in prison in 2010, yet some of the German residents have remained, transforming the former colony into a tourist destination complete with a restaurant, hotel, rental cabins, and even a boating pond.
The Chilean government now intends to expropriate portions of the land to memorialize the victims of Pinochet’s regime, a plan that has sparked considerable debate.
Across Chile, over 3,000 individuals were killed and more than 40,000 endured torture during the Pinochet regime, which remained in power until 1990.
Luis Evangelista Aguayo was among those forcibly “disappeared”.
His sister, Ana Aguayo, reflects on the past in her home in Parral, the town closest to Colonia Dignidad.
“Luis was a quiet soul who loved swimming and dreamed of a fairer world,” she recalls.
Mr. Aguayo, a school inspector, was an active member of the teachers’ trade union and the Socialist Party.
On September 12, 1973, the day after Pinochet’s coup against Chile’s democratically elected Socialist President, Salvador Allende, police arrested Mr. Aguayo at his home.
Two days later, he was transferred to the local prison, only to be forcibly taken away by police on September 26, 1973. His family never saw him again.
Ana Aguayo recounts that a local farmer informed her family he had seen her brother at the German colony.
“My mother and father went to Colonia Dignidad but were denied entry,” she said.
“They searched for him everywhere – police stations, courts – but received no information. My father succumbed to sorrow, unable to help his son. My 96-year-old mother still believes she can hear him calling, ‘Mama, come and get me.'”
Mr. Aguayo is among the 27 individuals from Parral believed to have been killed in Colonia Dignidad, according to an ongoing judicial investigation ordered by the Chilean government.
The total number of victims murdered there remains unknown, but evidence suggests that it served as the final destination for many opponents of the Pinochet regime, including Chilean congressman Carlos Lorca and several other Socialist Party leaders.
The Chilean justice ministry indicates that investigations point to hundreds of political detainees being brought to the site.
Ana Aguayo is a proponent of the government’s plan to create a memorial at the site.
“It was a place of horror and unspeakable crimes. It should not be a place for tourists to shop or dine. It should be a place of remembrance, reflection, and education for future generations to ensure that such atrocities never happen again.”
However, the government’s expropriation plans have generated division within Villa Baviera, home to fewer than 100 adults.
Dorothee Munch was born in Colonia Dignidad in 1977.
“We lived in single-sex dormitories, like barracks,” she recalls.
“From a young age, we were forced to work, washing dishes for the entire community and gathering firewood.”
The government plans to expropriate 117 hectares of the 4,829-hectare site, including buildings where torture occurred and locations where victims’ bodies were exhumed, burned, and their ashes scattered.
Ms. Munch opposes the expropriation plans because they include the center of the village, encompassing residents’ homes and shared businesses such as a restaurant, hotel, bakery, butcher shop, and dairy.
“We lived under a system of fear; we are victims too. We are rebuilding our lives, and this will victimize us once again. While people my age might be able to relocate, it would be devastating for the older residents.”
Erika Tymm arrived in Colonia Dignidad from Germany in 1962 at the age of two.
Separated from her parents, she remembers crying for her mother at night.
Like others from the colony, she claims she was subjected to electric shocks as a child.
She also opposes the expropriation plans and wishes to remain in the same place. “I want to be with people who understand what I went through.”
Chilean Minister for Justice and Human Rights Jaime Gajardo Falcón told the BBC that the government’s decision to expropriate the area focused on the main buildings of the former colony.
“These were sites of political detention, torture, surveillance, and training of state agents to commit crimes against humanity.”
The expropriation decree was published in July. The state will determine the value of the expropriated assets over the next few months, he said.
Seventy-three residents and former residents of Villa Baviera have written to the Chilean president expressing their concerns about the expropriation plans and requesting involvement in discussions.
They have hired a public relations firm to manage their media relations, and a representative of this firm accompanied the BBC during its visit to the site.
Separately, the BBC spoke to several other current and former inhabitants of Colonia Dignidad who support the creation of a memorial site.
Georg Klaube lived in Colonia Dignidad from 1962, when he arrived from Germany with his parents at the age of two, until 2010.
Like many boys in Colonia Dignidad, he claims he was given electric shocks, forced to take psychotropic drugs, and sexually abused by Schäfer.
“Every night, I was taken to a building, stripped naked, a black towel was placed over my face, and electric shocks were administered – here, here, here,” he says, pointing to his genitals, throat, feet, and under his arms.
“I believe we should have a memorial because so much cruelty was inflicted upon both Germans and Chileans here. I cannot believe there is now a restaurant in the place where so many children’s tears, urine, and blood flowed.”
Mr. Klaube is part of a legal action, supported by an association of former and current Colonia Dignidad inhabitants, which alleges that the leaders of Villa Baviera are unfairly distributing the income of the former colony.
They want the government to ensure that, upon expropriation, the indemnification payment is distributed among all residents and former residents.
Other victims who support the expropriation plans include former political prisoners tortured in Colonia Dignidad, small farmers evicted from their land when the German colony was established, and Chileans who were sexually abused by Schäfer as children.
Schäfer was arrested in 2005 and, in 2006, convicted of sexually abusing 25 children, including five counts of child rape. Several of his accomplices were also convicted.
Justice Minister Gajardo emphasizes the importance of ensuring that the horrors that occurred there are never forgotten.
“Atrocious crimes were committed here. Until now, it has been private property. Once the state takes over, Chileans will be able to enter freely, and it will become a space for memory and reflection to ensure that such crimes are never committed again.”
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