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The Bolivian Who Helped Thousands of Jews Escape from the Nazis
(AFP-Times of Israel) Jose Arturo Cardenas - German Jewish entrepreneur Mauricio Hochschild, who migrated to Bolivia from Germany in 1921, helped thousands of Jews flee to the South American country in the 1930s to escape the Nazis. "He saved many souls from the Holocaust by bringing them to Bolivia and creating jobs for them," said Carola Campos, head of the Bolivian Mining Corporation's information unit. "In 1938 Hochschild calculated that he had brought between 2,000 and 3,000 Jews over. But seven months later, in 1939, he calculated that he had brought 9,000," said historian Robert Brockmann. Hochschild paid the Jews' passage to Bolivia and housed them to begin with after they arrived. For many it was a stepping stone on to the United States, Brazil, Argentina or Israel. The Bolivian government nationalized Hochschild's mining company in 1952.