Theresa Cahn-Tober papers

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 

Theresa Cahn-Tober (1936-2004) was born Theresa Licht on 26 February 1936 to Szymon and Estera Licht. Her father Szymon Licht (later Stephen Lighton, 1903-1992) was born on 25 January 1903 in Jarosław, Poland to Julius and Gisela (née Goldstein) Licht. Before the war he worked as a doctor. Her mother Esther Licht (later Elizabeth Lighton, 1909-2007) was born Esther Chajes on 26 February 1909 in Kałusz, Poland (Kalush, Ukraine) to Perez adn Rose (née Muhlstein) Chajes. Her parents married on 11 September 1932 in Lvov, Poland (Lviv, Ukraine). After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, Poland was partitioned and Lvov was annexed by the Soviet Union. After the Nazis occupied Lvov in 1941, the family acquired false identification documents and survived the Holocaust in Warsaw. Szymon lived under the name Mieczyslaw Ladislaus Teodorowicz and his wife was Pelagia Kaliszewska-Teodorowicz. After liberation the family lived in the München Neu Freimann displaced persons camp from December 1945-May 1946. In May 1946 the family immigrated to the United States aboard the SS Marine Perch. Theresa married Herbert Cahn and worked as a clinical psychologist in Arizona. They had two children, Debora and Jeffrey. She later married Gerald Tober. 

Theresa Cahn-Tober papers 

folder 1 

The collection documents the Holocaust-era experiences of Theresa Cahn-Tober (born Theresa Licht) and her parents Stephen Lighton (previously Szymon Licht) and Elizabeth Lighton (previously Esther Licht), all of whom survived the war in Warsaw under false-identities and lived in the München Neu Freimann displaced persons camp after liberation. Included are false-identity documents, identification papers, and a report card. Post-war documents stating the Licht family were former prisoners of Mauthausen are also false certificates used to get into the displaced persons camp. 

The collection is unprocessed.