Maurycy Fraenkel, a friend of the family and a friend of Magdalena’s, came to live at the villa. Fox Man moved into the villa.Īntonina got pregnant and was confined to bed because of a painful leg condition. The Zabinskis called the man Fox Man and he turned out to be sympathetic to the Underground. The Nazis built a fur farm at the zoo and hired a Polish man raised in Germany to run it. When she became worried that she would be recognized because she was famous, she became a Guest at the villa. Magdalena Gross refused to live in the Ghetto, so she lived in disguise as an Aryan working in a bakery. When Szymon died, Jan brought his wife to stay at the villa. He then began sneaking people out of the Ghetto. The man was fascinated by the collection and Jan used this connection to gain access to freely enter the Ghetto. Antonina was in charge of caring for the Guests.Ī German officer arrived at the zoo requesting to see the insect collection of Szymon Tenenbaum that Jan was storing at the zoo. They began accepting “Guests” at the zoo who stayed temporarily until they could be moved to safer places. Jan and Antonina vowed to help as many of them as possible to escape. The Jewish people were confined to an area of Warsaw called the Ghetto. The zoo was converted into a pig farm to supply pork to the German soldiers, but when the Germans failed to fund the pig farm in order to keep the animals warm and healthy during the winter, the pigs died off and the farm was closed. He took only the animals he felt were valuable and had the rest shot.
Lutz Heck, the director of the Berlin Zoo and a Nazi, came to the Warsaw Zoo and offered to take the animals to Berlin to keep them safe. Jan became a part of the Polish Resistance and took risks to sabotage the Nazis.
Warsaw surrendered and Jan and Antonina returned to the zoo. She did not feel safe in the fourth floor apartment, so they went to stay in a lampshade store on the first floor where several other people were staying as well. When Jan was sent to the northwestern front, Antonina and Rys stayed with Antonina’s sister-in-law. The zoo had been hit by bombs and the polar bears had been shot when they escaped, along with several other animals Polish soldiers thought might be dangerous if they were to get out. Jan sent Antonina back to the country house to be with Rys.ĭays later, Jan went to the country house to bring Antonina and Rys back to Warsaw. The couple tried to go on foot to visit cousins, but had to turn back because the area was bombed. Jan was a veteran of World War I and a reserve officer, so he was on duty at night. They discussed sending Rys somewhere safer before the war began. Antonina left Rys with his nanny and went back to Warsaw for the weekend to spend time with Jan. While there, two of Rys’s friends told him that the beaches were being dug up to build fortifications. Antonina took Rys to their cottage in the country for a vacation. Polish and German relations were deteriorating. She was fascinated by the animals and became friends with Antonina. Jan met Magdalena Gross, a sculptor, while taking his daily bicycle ride through the zoo. She also acted as a zoo guide for any important guests. She was in charge of caring for the sick or orphaned animals as well as the family’s pets. Jan and Antonina lived in the villa on the zoo grounds and Antonina loved waking each morning to the noises of the animals. The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story, by Diane Ackerman, tells the true story of Antonina and Jan Zabinski who helped rescue hundreds of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II by hiding them in the empty animal enclosures at the zoo.īefore the war, the Warsaw Zoo was an idyllic place filled with beautiful plants and the sounds of the animal residents. The following version of this book was used to create this guide: Ackerman, Diane.
0 kommentar(er)
