Background
Gitman was born in Sarajevo in 1941. In October 1941 in her mother"s arms they escaped Sarajevo to the Italian zone of occupation on the Adriatic, both survived the Holocaust through the help of non-Jews.
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Esther Gitman
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That is where her husband Israel, earned his Doctor of Philosophy and finally in 1978 they moved to New York City.
Career
She has lived in the United States of America since 1972. Gitman received a bachelor"s degree in history and sociology from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada and a graduate degree in criminal justice from Long Island University. She earned a Doctor of Philosophy from City University in New York in Jewish history.
She began her research into the Croatian-Jewish history in 1999 with her dissertation Rescue of Jews in the Independent State of Croatia, 1941–1945.
In 2002 she received a Fulbright scholarship to travel to Croatia to continue her research. Gitman has compiled databases on Jews who survived from Sarajevo and Zagreb.
In 2011 she published a book When Courage Prevailed: The Rescue and Survival of Jews in the Independent State of Croatia 1941–1945 with the subject of rescues and survival of Jews in Independent State of Croatia and also about the role of Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac in these matters. In the interview for the Croatian daily Večernji list, Gitman said that for her: Stepinac is holy man who saved many Jews.
