German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Chilean President Gabriel Boric agreed Sunday to create a memorial at the former Colonia Dignidad, a settlement founded by a former Nazi military officer that served as a torture center during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
For Scholz, the idea of turning the site of the former colony into a memorial «has the support of the government»: «We will participate accordingly,» he said, according to the DPA agency.
For his part, Boric has thanked the German Executive for its willingness to «support the search for the truth.» «We fully support this. The Chilean state is fighting tirelessly for all truth and justice,» he said.
Scholz’s visit, which comes on the 50th anniversary of Pinochet’s coup, has begun with a visit to the Museum of Memory, which remembers the victims of the dictatorship.
Colonia Dignidad was founded in 1961 by former Nazi Army NCO Paul Schaefer after he fled Germany on charges of sexually abusing children in an orphanage. The enclave housed some 300 people.
The settlement, renamed Villa Bavaria and converted into a hotel, was isolated from society, located some 350 kilometers south of Santiago and maintained its own rules of coexistence such as the segregation of men and women.
Schaefer was prosecuted for human rights violations during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, between 1973 and 1990, when his enclave was used as a prison camp and torture center.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
