South America: Puerto Montt Chile Part 3: After lunch at the Kiel restaurant, we drove up the hill overlooking the city of Puerto Montt and the beautiful views of Calbuco volcano and...

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South America: Puerto Montt Chile Part 3

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Dec 13, 2021 16:19:09 #

srfmhg Loc: Marin County, CA

After lunch at the Kiel restaurant, we drove up the hill overlooking the city of Puerto Montt and the beautiful views of Calbuco volcano and Llanquihue Lake. We also drove through the old German neighborhood where the fire trucks were labeled "Feurwehr". I must admit that this made me a little uncomfortable. Although German colonization began in the 1850s, there is a significant Nazi connection in the more recent past as detailed below.

From 1850 to 1875, some 6,000 German immigrants settled in the region around Valdivia, Osorno and Llanquihue in Southern Chile as part of a state-led colonization scheme. Some of these immigrants had left Europe in the aftermath of the German revolutions of 1848–49. They brought skills and assets as artisans, farmers and merchants to Chile, contributing to the nascent country's economic and industrial development.

The German colonization of Valdivia, Osorno and Llanquihue is considered the first of three waves of German settlement in Chile, the second lasting from 1882 to 1914 and the third from 1918 onward. Settlement by ethnic Germans has had a long-lasting influence on the society, economy and geography of Chile in general and Southern Chile in particular.

Puerto Montt and the zone around Llanquihue Lake developed rapidly; its status as a colonization territory, established in 1853, was superseded in 1861 when the Llanquihue area was constituted as a regular province. The zone had a formal police force established in 1859 to deal with cattle theft – the most common crime at the time. By 1871, Puerto Montt had over 3,000 inhabitants and the whole Llanquihue Province had a population of 17,538.

Compared to Germans who settled in the big cities and ports of northern Chile, the Germans of southern Chile retained much of their German culture or Deutschtum. In time, communities came to develop a dual Chilean and German sense of belonging. Contrary to the fears of observers from the United States and as promoted by imperial and Nazi Germany, the German community in Chile did not act as an extension of the German state to any significant degree. Indeed, settlement in Chile had little to do with the German state as most migration preceded the formation of modern Germany in 1871. Please note that this statement is completely contradictory to the history outlined below! (MHG)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_colonization_of_Valdivia,_Osorno_and_Llanquihue

Nazi Colonies in Chile
There was a strong Nazi influence within youth organizations in Chile before 1933. Nazi Germany did everything in their power in order to pursue a Nazification policy in Chile but it did not work to a significant degree. Some of their activities involved the organization of a “Miss Nazi Beauty” contest, and establishing a Chilean branch of the Ku Klux Klan—which would soon disband.

“Silence is Fortitude” read the poster from the main office of Colonia Dignidad, one of the most notorious German colonies in South America. Its leader, Paul Shafer, was a low-ranking Nazi official who turned into cult leader.
European authorities accused him of several abuses before fleeing Germany, and the Chilean government issued warrants against him more than 30 years later. He disappeared for 8 years, and resurfaced in Argentina.
The two countries worked together to extradite him and convict him—he remained in prison for 4 years until he died.

Many high-ranking Nazis were allegedly shielded in the Colonia Dignidad, and according to the CIA, Dr. Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz “Angel of Death,” was one of them. He is mainly remembered for his actions at the Auschwitz concentration camp, where he performed deadly experiments on prisoners, was a member of the team of doctors who selected victims to be killed in the gas chambers and was one of the doctors who administered the gas. Mengele conducted human experiments on more than 700 twins as well as many other unspeakable atrocities. He was one of the most wanted war criminals of World War II. After the war, Mengele fled to South America. He sailed to Argentina in July 1949, assisted by a network of former SS members.

Dictator Augusto Pinochet was the ruler of Chile in the 70’s and 80’s. One of the many atrocities of his reign was the abduction, torture, killing and dissappearing of around 80 thousand people who opposed his regime. There were many concentration camps to accomplish this, one of them being within Colonia Dignidad. Apparently the Chilean government wanted to take advantage of Nazi experience and knowledge of prisioner torture and interrogation.

The colony also fabricated and stored an arsenal, guns, grenades and all sorts of weapons. They commercialized uranium and titanium, and extracted gold.

To put it bluntly, Nazis on the run would have a safe tailor-made space for them where they could still do the things they were persecuted for in Europe and most of the world. A secret cult of war criminals that copied and pasted their modus operandi, way of life, and torture camps. All the while being protected and prisoner-fed by the government, unsupervised, with no boundaries or protocol in their activities.

To the world’s surprise, Colonia Dignidad still exists today, and its inhabitants are mostly Nazi descendants. The most shocking part is that it is a tourist attraction, and you can visit this one and more Nazi colonies in South America anytime you want.
https://www.spanish.academy/blog/these-were-the-secret-nazi-colonies-in-south-america/
For additional information about Colonia Dignidad, please see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonia_Dignidad

For more images of the harbor and a history of Puerto Montt, Please see my previous posts:
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-721450-1.html
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-721795-1.html
Mark

As usual, I'll lead with my favorite model