A Russian-American desaparecido and a Nazi cult.
November 22, 2006 12:53 AM Subscribe
Boris Weisfeiler disappeared in Chile. The authorities claim that the experienced outdoorsman had drowned trying to ford a four-foot river. Uncovered documents tell a different story - that Pinochet's military had mistaken the vacationing mathematics professor for a "Jewish spy" and sent him as a political prisoner to the 37,000 acre German expatriate Nazi apocalyptic cult enclave of Colonia Dignidad. There, he was kept alive for at least two years before Paul Schaefer, the founder of the enclave, a Luftwaffe nurse and a serial child molester, most likely had him killed.
Sorry, and thanks for the fine post Sticherbeast.
posted by Pollomacho at 1:04 AM on November 22, 2006
posted by Pollomacho at 1:04 AM on November 22, 2006
Holy Christ that's scary and sick. Remind me of this the next time someone claims government conspiracies are tin foil hat fantasy.
posted by orthogonality at 4:29 AM on November 22, 2006
posted by orthogonality at 4:29 AM on November 22, 2006
I'm a friend of the family. Thanks for posting this. More people need to be aware of this story, when I was told about it I was astounded I'd never heard of it before.
posted by smoothvirus at 7:23 AM on November 22, 2006
posted by smoothvirus at 7:23 AM on November 22, 2006
Wow, what orthogonality said. Crazy.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:27 AM on November 22, 2006
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:27 AM on November 22, 2006
Great post. I too had never heard of this group before.
It really does seem like a "perfect storm" of horrible things - right out of some 1960s B-movie.
posted by stinkycheese at 9:49 AM on November 22, 2006
It really does seem like a "perfect storm" of horrible things - right out of some 1960s B-movie.
posted by stinkycheese at 9:49 AM on November 22, 2006
If someone were to write this story as fiction it would be dismissed as far-fetched and not believable. Amazing and horrifying.
posted by talos at 9:56 AM on November 22, 2006
posted by talos at 9:56 AM on November 22, 2006
orthogonality and talos, no shit!
I used to think the "secret base of terrorists plotting evil " was a joke. Right out of COBRA in a GI Joe cartoon. Then you had Al Queada. Just when I retire my tin foil hat I read something like this.
First off—the story is so fucking crazy!
Here is my script treatment:
A secret army of Nazi child molesters, with a massive hi-tech James Bond super-villain style base in the Chilean jungle, make millions of dollars through slave labor. The Nazis pose as a charity so people will send them orphans so they can do diabolical shit to them. They are protected by the Intelligence Services of a state who use the Nazi base to "disappear people."
If it was made into a movie I would be complaining how I can't suspend my disbelief.
And. What has happened to these people. People like that don't just stop doing crazy shit.
Makes me wonder what the hell else is going on out there. Maybe we are better off NOT knowing.
posted by tkchrist at 10:45 AM on November 22, 2006
I used to think the "secret base of terrorists plotting evil " was a joke. Right out of COBRA in a GI Joe cartoon. Then you had Al Queada. Just when I retire my tin foil hat I read something like this.
First off—the story is so fucking crazy!
Here is my script treatment:
A secret army of Nazi child molesters, with a massive hi-tech James Bond super-villain style base in the Chilean jungle, make millions of dollars through slave labor. The Nazis pose as a charity so people will send them orphans so they can do diabolical shit to them. They are protected by the Intelligence Services of a state who use the Nazi base to "disappear people."
If it was made into a movie I would be complaining how I can't suspend my disbelief.
And. What has happened to these people. People like that don't just stop doing crazy shit.
Makes me wonder what the hell else is going on out there. Maybe we are better off NOT knowing.
posted by tkchrist at 10:45 AM on November 22, 2006
Dave Emory has been all over this material for years,underground Riech,virtual corporate state, Nazis in exile,and the republican overlap. WFMU keeps the archive and rebroadcasts the program. also google franklin county coverup. "what you don't know can't hurt them"
posted by hortense at 10:58 AM on November 22, 2006
posted by hortense at 10:58 AM on November 22, 2006
Some of the South American countries don't take so kindly to nazi hunters.
posted by Sukiari at 12:15 PM on November 22, 2006
posted by Sukiari at 12:15 PM on November 22, 2006
Since it is apparent that consistent camps are set up at various and aassorted intervals around the planet, is it fair to say that evil - as a mental or existential state, however rare or widespread - is a condition which consciously and intentionally propagates itself? Would it also be fair to suggest evil is its own kind?
The scenario in Chile reminds me of how a virus is understood to replicate itself, subverting healthy living cells into host cells in order to produce more virus.
Likewise, creatures that are intentionally tortured and malformed often become torturing and malforming creatures themselves, thence producing additional malefactors.
That said, then can the hurting of others by malefactors with intent of creating a more hurtful and hurting kind - evil, per se - be considered a crime, or is it a from of reproduction by a natural (albeit alienated) kind?
A disturbing possibility, one rife with extensions, and one which continues to be ignored or wrapped up in religious connotations, but one which our intellectually discluding may be passively allowing for most of the ongoing damage of evil, while our allowing for the bona fide existence of evil as a bona fidesomethingmay pave the way for a more precise and healthy grasp of our standing in the universe.
Imagine! Evil scientifically exists, and religions are our understanding of evil what the practice of astrology was to the advent of astronomy.
posted by mongonikol at 12:40 PM on November 22, 2006 [1 favorite]
The scenario in Chile reminds me of how a virus is understood to replicate itself, subverting healthy living cells into host cells in order to produce more virus.
Likewise, creatures that are intentionally tortured and malformed often become torturing and malforming creatures themselves, thence producing additional malefactors.
That said, then can the hurting of others by malefactors with intent of creating a more hurtful and hurting kind - evil, per se - be considered a crime, or is it a from of reproduction by a natural (albeit alienated) kind?
A disturbing possibility, one rife with extensions, and one which continues to be ignored or wrapped up in religious connotations, but one which our intellectually discluding may be passively allowing for most of the ongoing damage of evil, while our allowing for the bona fide existence of evil as a bona fidesomethingmay pave the way for a more precise and healthy grasp of our standing in the universe.
Imagine! Evil scientifically exists, and religions are our understanding of evil what the practice of astrology was to the advent of astronomy.
posted by mongonikol at 12:40 PM on November 22, 2006 [1 favorite]
People interested in the cultic nature of the Nazi (and Neo-Nazi) movement, in addition to some firsthand reporting from Colonia Dignidad, really ought to check out Peter Levenda's Unholy Alliance.
posted by Sticherbeast at 12:50 PM on November 22, 2006
posted by Sticherbeast at 12:50 PM on November 22, 2006
My family and I lived in Chile just before the election that led to the coup, and it unsettled my trust of the West apparently permanently. I grew up seeing adults I had known in Chile visiting my parents, followed by discussions of the effects of kidnapping and torture on formerly democratic societies. I don't recall when I first heard of Colonia Dignidad, but I was most certainly not surprised. Nor will I be when we learn of the contemporary domestic equivalent.
posted by mwhybark at 8:37 PM on November 22, 2006
posted by mwhybark at 8:37 PM on November 22, 2006
Thank you for these references, I'd heard about the 'Nazi community in the south of Chile' but had no idea. Again the truth is so beyond the worst and creepiest one could imagine.
posted by sammyo at 10:22 PM on November 22, 2006
posted by sammyo at 10:22 PM on November 22, 2006
I want to believe the Colonia Dignidad angle, but I'm surprised there hasn't been any better proof show up. Like Chilean DINA (secret police) records, or a mass grave and bones. Wouldn't there be other eyewitnesses to have turned up by now? As secretive as they are, it's still odd.
posted by dhartung at 10:55 PM on November 22, 2006
posted by dhartung at 10:55 PM on November 22, 2006
dhartung: As far as Colonia Dignidad's nature as an interrogation center, the newspaper links do, in fact, describe recently discovered troves of intelligence files on the DINA connections and prisoners kept and killed. There are also defectors and former prisoners who have come forward to testify. There are intelligence records, there are eyewitnesses, there are living victims, there's a weapons trove, and there's a full-page apology in the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio from former members of the colony with regard to all the torture and child abuse. Especially considering that we haven't even yet heard from the investigations conducted off of the intelligence documents, I'd say that there is already very strong evidence of massive, massive criminal enterprise. Consider this as well in light of how the colony acted in concert with Pinochet's government, including and especially DINA itself, as a place where secrets could be kept - this is all just the tip of the iceberg, in a spot where the government was even making a conscious effort to keep things under wraps.
As for the connection with the death of Boris Weisfeiler, all we have to go on is some deduction and testimony. At the very least, he could have been disappeared by Chilean forces and not in Colonia Dignidad proper, but the investigation is ongoing and evidence points to the colony as the site. It has also been brought up that he could have been killed simply on the spot and thrown down the river, but that's scarcely better. Colonia Dignidad still existed and he's still missing, and there's still much to go in investigating the crimes of Pinochet's regime. I also humbly submit that there are no doubt more open-and-shut cases of missing Chileans as opposed to a single missing American, but I'll take whatever the hell these investigations can get. I want those accountable to be held accountable before they're old and "too sick to stand trial."
posted by Sticherbeast at 12:17 AM on November 23, 2006
As for the connection with the death of Boris Weisfeiler, all we have to go on is some deduction and testimony. At the very least, he could have been disappeared by Chilean forces and not in Colonia Dignidad proper, but the investigation is ongoing and evidence points to the colony as the site. It has also been brought up that he could have been killed simply on the spot and thrown down the river, but that's scarcely better. Colonia Dignidad still existed and he's still missing, and there's still much to go in investigating the crimes of Pinochet's regime. I also humbly submit that there are no doubt more open-and-shut cases of missing Chileans as opposed to a single missing American, but I'll take whatever the hell these investigations can get. I want those accountable to be held accountable before they're old and "too sick to stand trial."
posted by Sticherbeast at 12:17 AM on November 23, 2006
« Older My Home in the Ground | Two Atriplex albums finally released! Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Pollomacho at 1:03 AM on November 22, 2006 [2 favorites]