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Zehn Zwölf
27 min. 14 sec.

Petra Schlagenhauf | „Colonia Dignidad – Under every stone there is filth.“

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Guests

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Petra Schlagenhauf

Host

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Martin von Berswordt-Wallrabe

Published on

September 11, 2024

The history of Colonia Dignidad touches on the most serious human rights violations, Chilean state history and questionable processes in the German justice system. Berlin lawyer Petra Isabel Schlagenhauf, who represents victims of these crimes, talks in the podcast about the lack of legal reappraisal and the lack of memorialisation opportunities.

A new book on the subject will be published by BUXUS EDITION on 25 September 2024.

„These are the memoirs that Ilse, my adoptive mother, wrote after the arrest of Paul Schäfer, the founder of Colonia Dignidad in southern Chile. She wrote them in German and I translated them into Spanish. I have tried to preserve the form of her simple words, as a childlike and innocent woman who was only given four years of primary education during the decades she lived as a prisoner of the sect in this concentration camp.
Ilse died in January 2010 and fought for justice until the last months of her life. So that one day the gates of Colonia Dignidad (Villa Baviera) will be closed.“

So begins this novel, which is the result of in-depth research into a life and its dramatic setting. It is set in Colonia Dignidad, which was founded in Chile in the 1960s by Paul Schäfer, a former member of the Hitler Youth. As head of the colony, Schäfer applied National Socialist practices to which he lent a religious character. In the long years of his work, he amassed a great deal of power and money and was a close associate of Augusto Pinochet, with the support of the German government.

About the author

Born in Argentina, Chile is Emma Sepúlveda Pulvirenti’s adopted country, and she is an American through the trials and tribulations of life.

She studied history at the Universidad de Chile and graduated in the USA, where she lived for more than four decades. She earned her doctorate at the University of California in Davis. She has received numerous awards for her literary work and her commitment to the rights of Latinos in the USA. In 1994, she was the first Latina to run for the Nevada Senate. For seventeen years, her commentary on political, economic and social issues was a regular Sunday supplement in the Nevada Press. She has published more than thirty-five books on creative writing and literary criticism, as well as books on Spanish language teaching and research. Three of her most recent books (Gringosincracias, Setenta días de noche and Historia de un invisible) have been honoured with the Latino Book Award.

You can find the book here: https://buxus-edition.de/products/emma-sepulveda-pulvirenti-erinnerungen-von-ilse-an-colonia-dignidad-copy

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