birth_place nationality ethnicity birth_date article_title name occupation
sarajevo herzegovina -rrb- , kingdom of yugoslavia -lrb- present-day bosnia and yugoslavian jewish 20 september 1939 esther gitman
 esther gitman writer , historian
esther gitman

dr. esther gitman is jewish historian who is an expert on the holocaust in yugoslavia specifically focusing on the independent state of croatia .
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 .
she has lived in the united states of america since 1972 .
before that her family lived in israel for 19 years , then she moved to montreal , canada with her husband israel and only child , her daughter michal .
that is where her husband israel , earned his phd and finally in 1978 they moved to nyc .
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 phd 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 .
in 2008 , gitman participated in a conference on aloysius stepinac , the senior member of the catholic church among the croats in the second world war .
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 . ''
