In the first half of the 20th century, Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in Latin America and is considered an unattractive destination for immigrants. The indigenous population lives under conditions similar to serfdom. A middle class, labor unions and a modern national market take shape only slowly. Foreign trade is completely dependent on tin production. In the Chaco War (1932–1935), 52,000 Bolivians are killed. The country’s defeat by Paraguay leads to tremendous territorial losses and foreign debts, as well as political instability. Bolivia is ruled by the military until Germán Busch, the son of a German doctor, assumes the presidency in July 1937.

In the hope of stimulating the stagnant Bolivian economy, in June 1938 the government offers unlimited immigration for agricultural workers. The German Jewish industrialist Moritz Hochschild, who plays an important role in the immigration of Jews to Bolivia, supports the issuance of such visas. In January 1939, in cooperation with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, he founds the Sociedad de Protección a los Imigrantes Israelitas/SOPRO (Society for the Protection of Jewish Immigrants). He sponsors a settlement project in the undeveloped lowlands that is intended to enable larger groups of Jewish refugees to immigrate there.

The country’s liberal immigration policies, however, do not go unchallenged. Rumors about a trade in blank visas and uncontrolled immigration by Jewish refugees without agricultural qualifications lead to political upheaval. More restrictive immigration rules are passed but not consistently enforced. Antisemitic hostility increases.

Nonetheless, by the beginning of World War II, Bolivia develops into one of the main Latin American countries taking in Jewish refugees – until April 1940, when the Bolivian government passes a law forbidding all Jewish immigration indefinitely and without exception.

In total, about 8,000 German and Austrian Jews are able to save themselves by going to Bolivia.