Carol Rittner

Rittner was born in 1943 and raised in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, to a Catholic mother and Protestant father.[1] She graduated from Bishop McDevitt Catholic High School and College Misericordia (now, Misericordia University.[2] Rittner later earned her Doctor of Education from Pennsylvania State University.[3]

In 1984, Rittner organized an international conference on the theme "Faith in Humankind: Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust" for the Holocaust Memorial Council.[4] A few years later, she produced a film titled The Courage to Care which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject).[5] The documentary focused on three Christians who rescued Jews during the Holocaust.[6] From 1986 until 1990, Rittner was the director of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity before leaving to become president of Mercyworks.[7] Between 1994 and 1995, she was the Ida E. King Distinguished Visiting Professors of Holocaust Studies at Stockton University.[8] After her visiting professorship ended, she was invited to stay as the Dr. Marsha Raticoff Grossman Professor in Holocaust Studies.[2]

In 2000, she co-edited "The Holocaust and the Christian World: Reflections on the Past, Challenges for the Future" which examined Christian identity after Auschwitz.[9][10] A few years later, she received the 2010 Sister Rose Thering Award from the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education.[11]

Rittner was also a contributor to The Jewish Quarterly Review.[12] In 2013, she published Rape as a Weapon of War & Genocide through Paragon Publishing.[13] She also produced the film Sisters alongside director Robert Gardner which focused on the lives of five nuns.[14] Rittner retired from teaching in 2015.[2]