Papir was born in the Nelipeno in the Carpathian Mountains, which was then in the most easterly part of Czechoslovakia. Papir's parents were Aron and Helen. The names of the rest of her family are unknown.
There is little information about Papir’s childhood but in 1939 Nelipino was annexed by Hungary. The Nazis occupied Hungary in March 1944 and installed a puppet government. That government participated in the Holocaust.