COVERT DEVOTION:
THE AURORA RITTER STORY
A feature documentary film in progress by Greg Womble and Womcom Media
The untold WWII-era story of Aurora Ritter, an Alabama school teacher who is deceived by her German-immigrant husband, Nikolaus Ritter, when he emerges as the leader of one of the largest enemy spy rings in American history. When Aurora is stranded in Nazi Germany, she fights heroically to protect her children from the horrors of war.
Why this story? Why now?
As an eighth-grader at Cobb Junior High in Tallahassee, Florida, I knew my elderly English teacher, Aurora Ritter, had a secret. She had lived in Germany during World War II, but had she been a Nazi, a spy, or both?
The remarkable truth that I learned years later was far more captivating than anything I or my fellow students could have imagined. Now, I’m making a documentary about Aurora Ritter and her German spymaster husband—in collaboration with historians, fellow Cobb alumni, Aurora’s daughter, and other filmmakers.
How is this story relevant to today’s audiences?
Themes of resilience, loyalty, personal sacrifice, and the ultimate triumph of humanity are timeless, while reminders of the consequences of blind devotion to a person or ideology are timely.
The film will combine elements of a noir spy thriller and a love-gone-wrong tale, told with dramatic reenactments, historic footage, and insights from Aurora’s real-life daughter, Katharine Ritter Wallace.
The Story in a Nutshell
In 1924, Aurora, a bright and attractive 26-year-old school teacher from Alabama, travels to New York City and has a whirl-wind romance with Nikolaus Ritter, a dashing young German aristocrat whose family has fallen on hard times in post-war Germany.
Aurora and Nikolaus marry and have two children. She is a woman ahead of her time: tenacious, confident, and financially independent. But the swaggering Nikolaus can’t hold a job because he thinks they are all below his station. Still, Aurora believes in him and remains steadfast in her devotion.
In 1935, Nikolaus decides to take the family to Germany to visit his dying father. Soon, however, Aurora discovers that Nikolaus intends for them to stay in the Hitler-infected country when he accepts a job with the Abwehr, Germany’s military intelligence agency.
Aurora’s fierce loyalty to America soon clashes with her blind commitment to Nikolaus when she learns of his spying activity against the U.S. Her final straw, however, is discovering Nikolaus’s love affair with a coworker. Despite Aurora’s strict religious upbringing, she files for divorce and wins—but to maintain child custody, the courts force her to stay in Germany.
Over the next four years, Nikolaus’s aggressive intelligence work results in several wins for Germany, including the formation of a spy ring in the U.S. known to history as the Duquesne, or Ritter Ring. His biggest defeat, however, is when a German-American—whom Nikolaus had recruited years earlier to spy on the U.S.—turns out to be a double agent who helps the FBI round up 33 German spies in the largest such mass arrest in American history.
In Germany, Aurora secretly tries to escape the country with the children. But Nikolaus discovers the plan and orchestrates their kidnapping by the Gestapo. For five months, Aurora hunts for the children throughout Germany, despite threats on her life from the Nazi regime, but finally gets them back.
Aurora and the kids barely survive Allied fire-bombing campaigns and the long, lean months that precede the war’s end. In 1946, they return to the U.S. and Aurora begins a 23-year teaching career in Tallahassee.
Project Team
Key Womcom Media collaborators for this project include:
MICHELE FORMAN
Michele is a documentary filmmaker and founding director of the Media Studies Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She got her start in film as Director of Development for Spike Lee and served as Associate Producer on Lee's Academy Award-nominated HBO documentary, “4 Little Girls,” about the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.
Michele has been directing and producing award-winning documentary projects that focus on civil rights, human rights, and the environment since 1996.
DR. RAYMOND BATVINIS
Ray is a historian and educator specializing in the discipline of counterintelligence as a function of statecraft.
He is a retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent who served in the Bureau for 25 years. After retirement he earned his PhD in American History from The Catholic University in 2002.
He has authored two books on the history of the FBI’s counterintelligence program: The Origins of FBI Counterintelligence, which examines the turbulent early years of the Bureau’s counterintelligence evolution, and Hoover’s Secret War Against Axis Spies: FBI's Counterespionage During World War II.
DEBRA RUST
Debra serves as the Gifted Specialist for the Midfield City School District, which involves meeting the needs of talented students in the area of performing arts. With her students, Debra has produced 36 musicals, for which students are responsible for choreographing, staging, performing, and undertaking all aspects of stagecraft.
Under Debra’s leadership, Midfield has enjoyed a seven-year partnership with Red Mountain Theatre that offers students the opportunity to become members of the performing ensembles and conservatory. Midfield students have appeared in Red Mountain productions of The Color Purple, Mary Poppins, Once On This Island, Into The Woods, Frozen, Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, and others.
Dr. JONATHAN WIESEN
Jonathan is is a professor of modern European history at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and teaches courses on modern German history and the Holocaust.
His book, West German Industry and the Challenge of the Nazi Past, 1945-1955 (2001), won the Hagley Prize in Business History in 2002. He is also coeditor of Selling Modernity: Advertising in 20th Century Germany (2007) and author of Creating the Nazi Marketplace: Commerce and Consumption in the Third Reich (2011).
DENNA WILKINS
Denna is a dancer, choreographer, rap artist and actor in Birmingham, Ala. She choreographs and teaches dance to students in the Midfield City Schools performing arts program, which is directed by Debra Rust.
Denna discovered her love for dance as an 11-year old praise dancer in her church. She is currently developing her own dance studio that teaches ballet, modern, and praise dance to children and adults.
KENNY GANNON
Kenny is a singer, conductor, lyricist, composer, and actor. He has composed and performed music for his production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, written the lyrics for Tartuffe: The Musical with composer Paul Hamilton, and designed sound for over thirty different productions.
Gannon has a lengthy library of compositions and arrangements written specifically for Southside Baptist Church and other churches across the Southeast. He has also sung and written narrations for the North Carolina Symphony in concerts for Egmont, The Marriage of Figaro, and Burt Bacharach, and wrote and directed a musical tribute to Irving Berlin at Florida State University.
ELISE GRACE
Executive Producer “Lise” Grace is a former Washington, D.C.-based public defense attorney. She currently serves Jewish Family Services in Birmingham as co-director of CARES, a day respite program for persons with Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
Lise is also an executive producer for another Womcom Media production, “Love Without Parole.
DON KEITH
Award-winning author and documentary filmmaker Don Keith has published 40 books, including the best-selling thriller, Firing Point, the basis for the hit motion picture “Hunter Killer,” starring Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman. Don has written extensively about World War II history and sponsors the Untold Millions Project, which captures and publishes eyewitness accounts of major historical events in the U.S.
Don is a partner in a film production company, Fig Tree Media Group, and was the writer and producer of the feature documentary film “Colors of Character.”
WILLARD WHITSON
Willard is an award-winning artist, museum professional, photographer and filmmaker. He has created informal educational environments and programs at the American Museum of Natural History, The Academy of Natural Sciences and the National Children’s Museum.
His film and video work includes acting, writing, illustrating and performing in a variety of productions for public broadcasting and independent films. His collaborations with Greg Womble include “A Day and Two Hours Late: My Hunter S. Thompson Story,” “Love Without Parole”, “Bob and Bob’s Radio Rodeo,” and “The Science Police” for Kentucky Educational Television.
DAVID M. SMITH
David serves as Director of Photography and creative advisor on a number of documentary film and video projects, including “Love Without Parole'' for co-creators Greg Womble and Elaine Witt.
In addition to a busy freelance career, he is DP for the award-winning Alabama Public Television series, “Discovering Alabama.” Lately, he’s been shooting Curtiss motorcycles racing at the Bonneville Salt Flats and swapping stories with actor Robert Duvall between takes of a documentary about cowboys.
