While the War of the Triple Alliance was a determining factor in Paraguayan immigration policy in the late 19^th century and early 20^th century, another war influenced that same policy in the 1930s. From 1932 to 1935, Paraguay fought the Chaco War against Bolivia. During this 3-year long international conflict, the Jewish community demonstrated their full support to the country that welcomed them. For instance, Captain Raúl José Friedman fought and died in battle, and Dr. Isaac Schwartzman actively worked in the medical field of the Chaco War.[1]

As in the aftermath of the War of the Triple Alliance, Paraguay found itself needing to repopulate and rebuild the country. Thus, on November 16 of 1936, the Paraguayan government enacted the law that “Concedes Franchises for Polish Colonization.”[2] This very extensive decree promised Polish colonizers opportunities to purchase and farm vast pieces of land in Paraguay. As a result of this new law, between 1927 and 1938, 12,000 immigrants from Eastern Europe arrived in Paraguay.[3] Due to a lack of specificity in records,[4] and to the very complex geopolitical relations in Eastern Europe at the time, specifically between Polish, Ukrainian, and Jewish communities, these three communities sometimes appear as one, and thus, the number of Jewish people within those 12,000 immigrants is unclear. Nevertheless, as tensions escalated in Europe in the second half of the 1930s, South American countries recognized that an influx of migrants would soon reach their shores and have a deep impact in every aspect of their social lives. It was only a matter of time.