I don't quite recall why I picked up The Zookeeper's Wife, but I am pleased that I did. I don't generally read non-fiction, but I had just finished The Nightengale a fictional account of the activities during the Nazi occupation; Paris and France. The Zookeeper's Wife, is set in Poland, primarily in the national zoo in Warsaw.

I expect that nearly everyone alive is aware on a superficial level of the devastation of Warsaw. Warsaw had a very large Jewish population so as one might expect Hitler's mania against anyone who wasn't him fell heavily in Warsaw. Jan and Antonina Zabinski ran the zoo and were responsible for saving an estimated 300 Jews from the death that so many suffered. Jan gave his wife Antonina much of the credit, but I expect she would say that same of him. Given that, it was Antonina that did much of the day to day work of not only caring for the animals that remained after the occupation, but keeping her 'guests' alive by feeding them and moving them around like pieces on a chessboard.

Ms. Ackerman tells of many of the frightening, curious, and even humorous events she and her extended family experienced. She also makes some observations that I found enlightening in the conciseness. One in particular on the bottom of page 239 in which she states that it is interesting that wild animals can learn to put aside their anger in a few months of cohabitation with humans while humans have been trying to coexist for millennia without demonstrating an inability to be less than the most vicious beast. Read the quote, it is better.

I expect to get the movie today, but I already expect to be disappointed.

Read the book. You will be enlightened.

I understand some readers critiques of Ackerman's prose. Still, I found myself back in Warsaw, walking from Praga to the Old Town, greeting the lions at the zoo, smelling the honeyed linden trees in Praski Park while dodging bees. It's been two years since I've been to the Warsaw Zoo, but Ackerman brought me back and allowed me to see what a deep story it has (something I missed during my in person visit). That's a talent I envy in any author, even if on occasion her lengthy tangents caused me to flip a page or two. It wasn't until nearly the end that I remembered my memory was only a reflection of Antonina's world - version 2 of Warsaw, rebuilt after all the bombing and burning.

Quite an interesting read! I was not aware of any of this occurring and enjoyed learning about a different side of the war.

Husband: Uh, you know you are reading a book about a zoo?
Me: Yep.
Husband: And you know zoos have animals?
Me: Yep.
Husband: But you don't like either.
He's right. I don't. I'm not a fan of animals or zoos among other things. But this isn't just about a zoo or an animal, this is about so much more. If it were a book strictly about a zoo and animals I wouldn't have picked it up but it's because the role this zoo and even these animals played in the rescue of hundreds of people that compelled me to pick up the book. Based on the true story of Jan and Antonina Zabinski, zookeepers of Warsaw Zoo when Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Ackerman shares this charming story of how a zoo saved lives. Very few things, if anything else, was charming about World War II and the atrocities Germany performed all over Europe. But in an attempt to keep everyone calm Antonina Zabinski performed miracles daily to keep things as light and charming as possible.
I thought this was a fiction book based on a true story. It's actually a non-fiction book telling the true story from Ackerman's research, interviews, Antonina's diary, and other eyewitness accounts. What the Zabinski's did earned them the distinction, "Polish Righteous among the Nations"from the State of Israel along with many other Poles who did the brave and right thing of protecting the Jews, Gypsies, and Slavs from the Third Reich. The zoo served to be a perfect Underground for Jews escaping. It had underground tunnels leading to different animal houses and set ups that were conducive, not ideal mind you but conducive, to aiding people needing to hide. Even while German soldiers roamed the zoo ground on and off duty! The zoo enabled the Zabinski's to hide people in plain sight, so to speak. Warsaw had a large - about 350,000 - resistance effort that tirelessly fought against the Nazi's from 1939 to 1945 when Russia came in and "saved" Poland. This was no rescue but merely a deal that had been struck between Stalin and Hitler. What differed about the Nazi reign of terror in Warsaw (and I'm assuming all of Poland) is the "rules." Hitler seemed to have a special hatred for not just the Jewish, Gypsies, and Slavs of Poland but for Polish people in general. Several times he attempted to completely annihilate the Polish race altogether, regarding them as useless to society. He regarded them to be uneducated and slovenly. Yet in 1939 one of his first orders was to round up all Polish educators and people of intellect and mass murder them - which happened. Very few escaped from that initial massacre. Seems to me he was more threatened than disgusted by the Poles. So the Polish people were not able to escape the terror of the Nazi's if they were not of Jewish or other hatred ethnic backgrounds. It was just the Catholic Poles had a longer timeline than the others. Near the end of the war Hitler issued another strike on Warsaw that spared nobody. He wanted the city - the Nation - decimated.
Yet the Zabinski's managed to survive. And they aided 300 others in surviving as well. Their story highlights the humanity that rose up in the face of such evil, it joins other inspiring stories of bravery and selflessness. As Jan Zabinski said, "I only did my duty - if you can save somebody's life, it's your duty to try" and "We did it because it was the right thing to do."

Poorly written. The story was interesting, but it was lost in too many tangents. Didn't become readable until chapter 23.

Thoroughly enjoyed this raw depiction of what life was like during war-time Warsaw. By using actual excerpts from the character's own writings, the author is able to give her readers a unique look at a hard-to-imagine time in history.

I would have liked more story interwoven into the factual accounts. The characters were flat. A whole chapter on the insect collection was a bit much. This is one of my favorite genres, I was disappointed.

Not my most favorite book ever--not the worst. Totally forgettable.