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The Finnish Tapani Brotherus, is known as the “Oskar Schindler” from Chile, and he is considered a hero after taking 2,500 Chileans out of the country into exile, through the “Finnish route,” after the military coup of September 11, 1973.
Tapani Brotherus, a former Finnish business manager, was in our country 47 years ago, between 1973 and 1976. He speaks with BBCL from Helsinki, and recounts his crude and extreme experience to save the lives of thousands of Chileans persecuted by the Pinochet dictatorship, portrayed in the Finnish-Chilean series “Invisible Heroes”, which Chilevisión broadcasts and which the former diplomat saw on television last year in Europe.
-If they call you Chile, what do you think?
If you go to Chile, as the song says … because there it says what the country offers. Open, modest and friendly people. I came back in 2010 when they opened the Museum of Memory and in 2015 when President Bachelet gave me recognition and that was impressive for me. Only good memories.
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He says that the actor who plays him (Pelle Heikkilä) does it well, that the series perfectly sets what happened at that time, although his car was not the color that appears in the production, he jokes. He was 35 years old and was able to save more than two thousand Chileans.
“It’s almost fifty years when all this happened and I can remember everything, but they made the film about a manuscript that has a lot of merit in the environment and in the details. Many people here in Finland did not know anything about what had happened, and now I realize that it is the same in Chile as well. My thanks to the Chilean and Finnish companies that have wanted to make this film ”, hila fino Brotherus.
-In perspective, how is the rescue of 2,500 Chileans seen in such a complex time?
All wanted to flee and escape from Chile to save their lives at risk and most of them went to the German Democratic Republic (GDR), who wanted to bring Chileans to their country. Only a few hundred arrived for Finland. But, more than two thousand to the GDR.
-Why the GDR?
Finland was the protective country of the GDR, because the socialist country had ended its relations with the Military Government. For this reason, the RDA wanted to have a presence in Chile through the Finnish embassy and that’s where those figures came from.
-But, it was you who served as a bridge, as a help …
I have seen the second and third generation of those who came to Finland who have been incorporated into the society here and who defend themselves very well. They are honest and honest people. There are Chilean families here who are happy. We could have brought in many more, but at the time there was only this quota of hundreds, Sweden took ten times or more. They were the first asylees to arrive in the country, it was something new and Chile has a very good reputation in Finland. Of course, the last two years the news has been less good and there is a concern about what is going to happen and how military violence can be used instead of improving people’s lives.
-Do these images of the social outbreak in Chile recall ancient times?
Yes, we had projects in forestry and mining. I was able to visit places where we had projects with Chileans, which ended in 1973, in September. The refugee bridge is the only thing that Chile exported to Finland and Finland imported from Chile. I say this in an ironic sense, but every relationship between the two countries was in the form of asylees. That was a positive experience for Finland and I hope the Chileans have been happy here too.
-What do you think of Augusto Pinochet today, did you see him in that period?
I was not an ambassador and he only received them, I was in charge of business, the ambassador we had was in Buenos Aires, when he presented his credentials with Pinochet, I was present, and I heard the discussion they had. Pinochet was a bit like Trump, with rather limited wisdom, but very apt to generate money for his own interest. What is known about Pinochet, then with the Riggs Bank and it was learned how much money his family was able to get through the arms business.
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Tapani assures that if life gave him the option to go back 47 years, he would replicate the same actions and that his wife, Lysa brotherus, was a determining factor in that complex episode that they experienced as a protective family after the overthrow of Salvador Allende.
-Lysa Brotherus had a decisive role, since despite the quality of diplomat that you had, in that period your situation was equally complex, how did your wife influence, did she never tell you anything about risking their lives?
She cared about all the people in our house, there were 20 or 30 people. The people who came to our house, as refugees, thought that there was a service like in a hotel, but we had no staff and my wife was cooking until they divided the work with the asylees. She even drove to Mendoza to buy food and went to the markets to buy what she could. Maintaining order and regular food for the families that were in the house.
-How long were they staying at your house?
Until they were moved to a German school in Alcántara, which we rented, there they were afterwards. The meals were organized by a Brazilian airline that passed out snacks that were given to people on the plane.
-She never questioned what you did?
No, she thought that was what to do.
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The series highlights the role of the former Swedish ambassador, who died in 1989, Harald Edelstam, who first took the asylum actions and had various crossings and discussions with military leaders of the time, due to human rights violations, until he was expelled. the country in late 1973.
Tapani remembers it perfect.
-Did the former Swedish ambassador Edelsman have such a powerful role facing the military, as seen in the series?
Yes, he did it. He fought verbally with the Chilean authorities and for that reason they expelled him from the country. That had to be avoided, I had a lot of sympathy for him, a great personality, but in the diplomatic circle you have to know where the limits go, you cannot miss your job. They expelled him in December 1973.
-Did Harald Edelstam manage to send many Chileans to Sweden?
He was the one who started, with a lot of publicity and openness, I did it secretly, secretly, because I did not want my career to be cut off, I wanted to help the maximum number of asylees and not seek publicity for that. Then in January of this year, I read in the magazine The diplomatic world that there was a Chilean named Carmen Castillo, who escaped to France and produced a documentary there on the activities of the French ambassador (Pierre) De Menthon and his wife. There they say that he took two risks, firstly, towards the Military Junta in Chile and also towards the French government.
-Why?
Because the French government did not want to have the asylees, because despite having a leftist government, for them the fault was a leftist named Allende and also De Menthon had good relations with the Chilean authority, correct relations with the military government, and that is why he was able to have safe-conduct. When I read that, but on a larger scale, what he did, I did too, but what an ambassador does is much more visible than an economic attaché.
The above would reveal one of the arguments of the series name: “Invisible Heroes” and Tapani is one of them, it is the main one.
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He shows humility when compared to Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved more than 1,000 Jews during the Holocaust.
Tapani Brotheurus he insists that, in the Chilean case, the RDA was key.
“Without the RDA we would not have been able to reach even 500 people at our expense. About 200 arrived in Finland and other European countries, also Argentina and Mexico. But if one speaks of volumes it is thanks to the RDA. But, the act of getting into a risky project was mine. I am completely satisfied that after so many years they have met, ”says Brotherus.
– Could you detail how the process of the safe extraction of people from Chile was carried out?
Courtesy safe conducts. When we had people who wanted asylum, we had their names and I went to various concentration or detention camps, people inside and outside the embassy. I presented these lists to the Foreign Ministry, to the chief of protocol there, and then they gave these safe-conducts to countries that were not considered enemies of Chile and the Junta.
-Then, he had to go to the National Stadium to look for people …
We presented the list to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, when we learned the names of the people and their situation, then it was necessary to define what was a real case and what need they had. They were studying them at the Chancellery, at the end of 1973 they said they were not going to give any more safe-conduct. This led to a higher number of asylees in the embassies. But, the embassies in question complained to the Foreign Ministry, because they could not work due to the high number of asylees. That meant that they dispatched Minister Ismael Huerta, they changed him for another. There they said that if they wanted to leave, they should do it no more, since leaving them at the embassies in Santiago was not convenient for one or the other.
It’s Thursday afternoon in Helsinki almost at nightThe ex-diplomat is a little tired, it shows in his voice.
After the military coup, Tapani Brutherus he stayed in Chile until 1976, then he was in several other countries.
“Only in 2010 did the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs find out what had happened in Chile and the minister invited me to his office, offered me a cup of coffee and thanked me very much for what had happened 40 years ago. years. But, it took four decades for them to know what he had done “, says the “invisible hero”, the “Schindler of Chile”, the former Finnish diplomatic agent, who, unlike yesterday, he no longer has anything to hide.
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