Former Montrose Merchant was a Holocaust Survivor

If you’ve been here in the valley a long time, you may remember a dress shop for young ladies back in the ’60s called Caroline’s. It was located at 2247 Honolulu Ave. in the storefront occupied now by Chic Bohëmian Bride. Caroline’s was owned by a Polish Immigrant named George Lubow.

A couple of years ago I posted a photo of the shop in the Historical Society’s Facebook page. I got some of the comments I expected, such as: “Got a Bobbie Brooks wool plaid pleated skirt with matching mohair sweater. Trying to be one of the cool girls.” But I was also alerted that George had written about his time as a Jew in Nazi-occupied Poland during the war. “Escape Against All Odds: A Survivor’s Story,” published in 2004, is a riveting account of huge tragedy, incredible escapes, bravery and redemption. The following is a summary of what George Lubow wrote in his book.

The Lubow family – grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins – lived happily in a small town in eastern Poland. In 1939, the Russians swept in, gobbled up resources and exiled to Siberia the town’s leadership. In 1941, the town was turned into a battlefield as Germany pushed the Soviets back. The Lubows’ home was burned.

The Jews of the town gradually began to be executed, but later as the Jewish community was turned into a slave labor camp the executions began to take place on a larger, more organized scale. Those able to work were concentrated in a ghetto; the rest were killed. George lost his mother and a brother and most of his extended family. As the atrocities mounted some Jews, including George’s brother Paul, were able to escape and join Jewish partisan groups in the forests. Paul returned to camp, and George and he both escaped in the dead of winter. They and a few others were hidden for many months in a small bunker by a sympathetic farmer. During this time George’s father was able to escape and join them.

For 18 months the three remaining Lubow family members barely existed, hidden underground, eating bare scraps of food. But in mid-1944 the Russian Army drove the Germans back and George, Paul and their father were able to emerge. The two emaciated brothers were immediately conscripted into the Soviet Army and placed on the front lines. George’s health failed, though, and he was hospitalized. As the war ended, the three remnants of the large Lubow family were able to reunite. With the help of the Jewish underground, they made their way west and onto a ship to New York. They started a candy store and successfully morphed it into a diner.

In 1956, George and his new wife came to California to join a distant relative in his dress store business in Monrovia. A year later, George launched his own dress store, Caroline’s, in South Pasadena and two years later opened a second store in Montrose. After losing 10 years of his life to war, George Lubow had a successful business in Montrose, three beautiful daughters and he became a leader in the Jewish community. He died in 2019.

And changing gears, a story that illustrates why I love living here. Recently, as I pulled up to the stop on westbound Honolulu at Rosemont, a little runaway dog sprinted through the intersection eastbound, followed by a slower middle-aged man chasing it. I thought I’d help by turning around and putting my car in front of the dog to slow him down. But to do so, I had to wait for a parade of three or four other cars intending to do the same. We each raced ahead and took a turn at blocking the dog with our cars but the dog dodged each car and kept going. Finally, a car going the other direction pulled over and a teenager jumped out and sprinted after the dog and, with her youth and speed, I’m sure she caught up to the little dog. All these busy motorists took the time to try to help. CV is a good place.

Happy New Year.