Paul Emden Blaum was born April 24, 1916, in Elmhurst, Bronx, New York. He was the son of Emil Blaum and Monica Purcell Blaum. He graduated with honors from St. Ann's Academy in New York in 1934. Blaum enlisted in the New York State National Guard in 1935, and served for three years before being honorably discharged. He then enlisted in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1941. Shortly thereafter, he enrolled in the Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he graduated as a second lieutenant and was assigned to the 506th Parachute Regiment. While enrolled in Fort Benning, he met and married Cynthia Allen, a nurse who was working at Columbus (Georgia) City Hospital. They married on September 6, 1942, at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Camden, South Carolina. They had one son, Paul Emden Blaum II. (See "I Never Knew My Mother," Box 1, Folder 12).

Paul Emden Blaum was sent to the European Front with his Parachute Regiment when the U.S. entered World War II. In October 1944, he was seriously wounded in action and died two days later from his injuries on October 4, 1944. He was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously.