Some local support ofNazism in Chile precededAdolf Hitler's 1933 appointment as Chancellor of Germany, including aChilean National Socialist party active from 1932 to 1938.Nazi Germany also pursued theNazification ofGerman Chileans.
Nazi spy networks operated in the country between 1937 and 1944. Between 1941 and 1947, with the help of the United StatesFederal Bureau of Investigation, the Chilean government investigated Nazi activity, later expanded to other parts ofLatin America. Numerous photographs and other documents were declassified in 2017.
Other movements related to Nazism continued to operate in Chile until the latter half of the 20th century. This includedColonia Dignidad, a site ofhuman rights abuses duringAugusto Pinochet's military dictatorship. Pinochet was supported by formerSchutzstaffel (SS) officerWalter Rauff, who spent his later life in the country.
Chilean physicianNicolás Palacios, a proponent of thescientific racism ideology, considered the "Chilean race" to be a mix of two bellicose master races: theVisigoths of Spain and theMapuche (Araucanians) of Chile.[2] Palacios traces the origins of the Spanish component of the "Chilean race" to the coast of theBaltic Sea, specifically toGötaland inSweden,[2] one of the supposedhomelands of theGoths. Palacios claimed that both the blonde-haired and the bronze-coloured ChileanMestizos share a "moral physonomy" and a masculine psychology.[3] He opposed immigration fromSouthern Europe and argued that Mestizos who are derived from Southern Europeans lack "cerebral control" and are asocial load.[4]
There was aGerman Chilean youth organization with strongNazi influence prior to 1933 (whenAdolf Hitler and theNazi Party gained control ofGermany). Germany pursued a policy ofNazification of the German Chilean community,[5] as it did elsewhere.[6] The German Chilean communities and their organizations were considered a cornerstone to extend the Nazi ideology across the world, and they mostly supported Nazi Germany (at least passively), with a widespread presence in the country'sGerman Lutheran Church.[5] The Chilean German community, however, did not act as an official extension of the German state.[7] A local chapter of the Nazi Party was started in Chile.[5]
TheNational Socialist Movement of Chile (MNSCH) was founded in 1932. After it was dissolved in 1938, some of its notable former members migrated into theAgrarian Labor Party, obtaining high charges.[8] Other former MNSCH members formed new parties of that kind until 1952.[8]
Between 1937 and 1944, Nazi spy networks operated in Chile, which theChilean Navy discovered via radio. In 1941, thedirector general of theInvestigations Police of Chile established a department that probed local pro-Nazi activity through 1947.[9][10] The police team had the support of the United StatesFederal Bureau of Investigation's wartimeSpecial Intelligence Service.[11] The investigators broke up one spy ring in 1942 and another in 1944.[11][12] The latter reportedly received its orders fromGerman High Command and theAxis espionage operations center, partially based out of Chile's capital,Santiago, until thecounterespionage effort forced it to shift fully to Argentina's capital,Buenos Aires.[13] The department subsequently prevented a sabotage plot (which targeted thePanama Canal) by the Chile-based head ofLatin America's Nazi espionage network.[11] Chile was then joined by other governments in probing Nazi activity throughout Latin America.[11]
In 2017, records from the investigation were declassified and turned over to theNational Archives of Chile.[14] In 2018,History's investigative documentary seriesHunting Hitler visited the archives and learned of the alleged existence of a network of over 750 outposts resembling Chile's Nazi-tiedColonia Dignidad.[15][16] Additionally, aconcentration camp was claimed to have been run by formerSchutzstaffel (SS) officerWalter Rauff[15][a] who supported Chilean dictatorAugusto Pinochet.[18]
Senior SS officerRichard Glücks, believed to have died in 1945, has also been speculated to have escaped Germany, allegedly to Chile.[19][20]
Colonia Dignidad (Spanish pronunciation:[koˌlonjadiɡniˈdad];lit. 'Dignity Colony') was an isolated colony established in post-World War II Chile byemigrant Germans which became notorious for theinternment, torture, and murder of dissidents during themilitary dictatorship of GeneralAugusto Pinochet in the 1970s while under the leadership of German emigrant preacherPaul Schäfer.[21] Colonia Dignidad has been described as a "state within a state".[22][23]
A new Nazi Party was formed in 1964 by school teacher Franz Pfeiffer;[8] it organised a "Miss Nazi" beauty contest and formed a Chilean branch of theKu Klux Klan[8] before disbanding in 1970. Pfeiffer attempted to reboot the party in 1983 amida wave of protests against Pinochet's military dictatorship.[8]
Nazism had also detractors in Chile. An example of this is thetelegram sent bySalvador Allende and other members of theCongress of Chile to Hitler after theKristallnacht (1938) in which they denounced thepersecution of Jews.[24]
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