The victims of an infamous Nazi pedophile commune in Chile say the compensation of up to $11,000 Germany has agreed to pay each of them is not enough.
Germany said Friday it would pay the funds to the victims of Colonia Dignidad commune founded in 1961 by Paul Schaefer, a former Nazi soldier.
The commune was promoted as an idyllic German family village. The reality of the place, however, was something sinister.
Dozens of children were sexually abused at Colonia Dignidad by Schaefer.
Its approximately 300 German and Chilean residents were abused and drugged. They were prevented from leaving the site that was surrounded by armed guards with dogs.
Survivors say they were virtual slaves.
Horst Schaffrick told the French news agency AFP that the money is “a help, yes, but it does not solve the problem. We are a lost generation.” Schaffrick, who was three when he arrived at the commune with his family, says he was sexually molested by Schaefer.
A lawyer for the survivors said, “What we would have wanted, and what we are arguing for, would be that we give settlers who are old enough to retire a decent pension, no more and no less.”
A German report released Friday said, “The survivors still suffer massively from the severe psychological and physical consequences after years of harm caused by violence, abuse, exploitation and slave labor.”
The report also said that compensation to the victims would be paid “exclusively out of moral responsibility and without recognition of a legal obligation.”
The commune also “actively collaborated with Pinochet dictatorship henchmen on torture, murder and disappearances,” according to the German report in a reference to Augusto Pinochet, Chile’s dictator from 1973 – 1990, who tortured and “disappeared” his critics.
Schaefer was arrested in 2005 in Argentina. He was jailed in Chile for child sexual and other abuses.
He died in 2010 in prison at the age of 88.
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