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Paulina was born on 17 March 1878 in Hrodno, Belarus. In 1897 she settled in Antwerp, where she married Mozes Borisewitz in 1906. Paulina and Mozes had four sons: Jacques (1907), Simon (1909), Oscar (1911) and Robert (1913). Following Mozes’ death in 1924, Paulina was left to bring up her four sons on her own. She started working as a seamstress for clothes shops to support her family.
All four sons forged a career during the 1930s. Jacques started out as a diamond salesman and later opened a sports shop, together with his brother Simon. Simon was also an acclaimed gymnast. Oscar joined the army and became Belgium’s first Jewish pilot. Robert gained a doctorate in law and started working as a solicitor. When the Germans invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940, the family was separated. Most of them would never see each other again.
Oscar died in Morocco in 1942; Robert fled to Brazil with his fiancée. Paulina stayed in Antwerp with her sons Jacques and Simon and their families. In 1943, they went into hiding in Hoboken. When the Nazis arrested Simon, who was active as a resistance fighter in the Jewish Defence Committee, and forced him to betray his family, Paulina was arrested. Simon’s wife Anna and Jacques’ wife Hilde were also arrested. Their children ended up in orphanages. Jacques had already been deported.
On 3 April 1944 Paulina was taken to the Dossin barracks. The next day, on 4 April 1944, she was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau on Transport XXIV. She did not survive. Simon, Anna and Hilde were also deported via the Dossin barracks at a later date. Anna was the only one to survive the camps. She was reunited with her son and nephews in 1945 and managed to make contact with Robert, the only surviving brother of the Borisewitz family who had managed to flee to Brazil.