History of the Jews in Paraguay 1939, between 15,000 and 20,000 Jews from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia took advantage of Paraguay's liberal immigration laws to escape from Nazi-occupied Europe. After World War II, most Jews that arrived in Paraguay were survivors of concentration camps. Simultaneously, in the 1960s roughly 40,000 Germans and their descendants, a great many of whom were Nazi supporters and some of whom were prominent Nazi figures, were living in Paraguay. Infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele also temporary lived in the country. Today, there are 10,000 Jews mostly living in Paraguay's capital city of Asunción. The majority of the Paraguayan Jewry is of
Paraguay Paraguay Paraguay (; ; , ), officially the Republic of Paraguay (; ), is one of only two landlocked countries in South America (the other is Bolivia). It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the country from north to south. Due to its central location in South America, it is sometimes referred to as "Corazón de Sudamérica" ("Heart of South America"). Spanish conquistadores arrived in 1524 after navigating northwards from the