June 21, 2017 - Moritz Hochschild

Moritz Hochschild

Recently my friend Anna posted one of the most moving accounts of the Bolivian Schindler.  His name was Moritz Hochschild, or Mauricio Hochschild in Bolivia.

He was born in Biblis, Germany in 1881.  His family was in the mining business, so he studied mining and engineering in the Frieberg University of Mining and Technology.  After several years of working in the mining industry in Germany, Australia, and Spain, he ventured into the world of South American mining in Chile, but returned to Germany after World War 1 and married Kathe Rosenbaum (uhmm – I have a cousin named Kathy Rosinbaum.  Could be we are related).

He soon made his way to Bolivia where tin was becoming king and replacing silver as Bolivia’s claim to fame.  He became one of Bolivia’s three tin barons, alongside Simon Iturri Patiño and Carlos Victor Amayo.  These three men controlled tin much the same way the Saudis control oil today.  History knows Hochschild as a ruthless tycoon.

But I would not be writing about a tin baron unless there was a reason.  I wrote about Patiño because of his beautiful estate in Cochabamba.  As for Hochschild, what makes him important to me is what he did in the 1930s.

If you recall your history, Hitler came to power in 1933, at the same time as Franklin Roosevelt.  This followed the poor treatment of Germany in the Treaty of Versailles and a devastating depression through much of the 20s.  If you think the Depression was bad in the USA, do a little research on it for Germany.  Hitler blamed the Jews and Communists for Germany’s problems and the people listened.   Before too long, Jews were suffering persecution that eventually turned into the Final Solution of the 1940s.

Recently documents were uncovered in the Hochschild estate in La Paz that tells a different story than the evil capitalist.  It is thought that Hochschild might have been part of an anti-fascist movement and had connections with the German Resistance.  In 1938, he convinced Bolivian President German Busch to give special visas to Jews fleeing Nazi Germany.  He persuaded the president that they would be a major contribution to the Bolivian economy.   

Over the next two years, more than 9,000 German Jews made their way to Bolivia.  Some were employed in Hochschild’s mining organization and others settled on estates he bought for the Jews to farm in the Yungas region near La Paz.

I’ve told you before that I am writing this blog to introduce you to the culture of Bolivia.  The longer I am here and the more I talk to Bolivians, I discover that this land has some heroes you should know about.  Men like Hochschild, though a ruthless capitalist, is a hero to me, for finding a way to get these 9,000 Jews into Bolivia.