Paul was born in 1938 in Slovakia and was a young child when World War II began. He was in hiding in various places with his mother and father from the age of 5. He witnessed his mother and father both brutally beaten by police. Thereafter, they were transported to Sered, a labor and transit camp in the Slovak Republic, where his father was separated from them. In December 1944, he and his mother were transported to Theresienstadt where they spent many months in terrible conditions. They were liberated by the Soviet Army in May 1945. He never saw his father again and spent many years trying to find out what had become of him. His memoir is In Search of My Father.