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A review by bethpeninger
The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman
5.0
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."
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."