Lola Byron collection

Lola Byron was born on September 16, 1943 in as Iza Papierbuch, daughter of Regina Pomerancblum Papierbuch and Jakob Papierbuch. Her mother named her Iza after her own father, Izak Pomerancblum, who was a liquor merchant in Warsaw, but called her Lala (a doll in Polish). Both her parents lived in Warsaw before the outbreak of the war. Regina was born in Kielce and had two sisters: Krysia and Dorka, both probably perished in the Warsaw ghetto. Jakob’s mother and sister fled Warsaw to Vilna. His mother was shot in Ponary, his sister Franka survived the ghetto and a concentration camp and his sister Zosia managed to escape to Siberia. Regina and Jakob Papierbuch escaped German occupied territory to Bialystok, which was under Soviet administration. They married there on December 12, 1939. In 1940 the Papierbuchs were arrested and incarcerated in a labor camp in Siberia. After the general amnesty in July 1941, they were released and settled in Topchikha in Siberia, some 1,800 miles ENE of Moscow. Jakob’s sister, Zosia Gryfenberg, and her husband Bronek, who were arrested in Bialystok in 1941 and deported to Topchikha, were reunited there. Bronek Gryfenberg joined the Anders’ Army. In 1943 twin daughter and son were born, although the son did not survive the birth, and immediately, Jakob was mobilized into the Polish Army. Regina and Lola repatriated to Poland in 1946 and settled for a while in Lodz, where they were reunited with Jakob. Jakob, Regina and Lola Papierbuch left Poland in 1947 for Bensheim DP camp in Germany, but soon traveled to Paris to be reunited with Jakob’s two sisters: Zosia and Franka. Jakob worked there as a weaver. In 1949 Jakob was hired by the International Refugee Organization and the family moved to the Foehrenwald DP camp near Munich. Jakob, Regina and Lola Papierbuch immigrated to the United States in 1951 and settled in the Bronx, where Jakob initially worked for his brother-in-law and later opened his own eyeglasses frames distribution business. Jakob died in 1991 and Regina died in 1994. Lola Byron, her husband Howard, her sons, Craig and Jason Hillman, her daughter, Hope, son-in-law Avi Adler and grandchildren Shaina and Jackson reside in Chevy Chase, MD.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Lola Byron

Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Lola Byron donated the Lola Byron collection to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2000.