When Germany invaded Poland, Stuka bombers devastated Warsaw-and the city's zoo along with it. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski began smuggling Jews into empty cages. Another dozen "guests" hid inside the Zabinskis' villa, emerging after dark for dinner, socializing, and, during rare moments of calm, piano concerts. Jan, active in the Polish resistance, kept ammunition buried in the elephant enclosure and stashed explosives in the animal hospital. Meanwhile, Antonina kept her unusual household afloat, caring for both its human and its animal inhabitants-otters, a badger, hyena pups, lynxes.With her exuberant prose and exquisite sensitivity to the natural world, Diane Ackerman engages us viscerally in the lives of the zoo animals, their keepers, and their hidden visitors. She shows us how Antonina refused to give in to the penetrating fear of discovery, keeping alive an atmosphere of play and innocence even as Europe crumbled around her.
Being a history buff, I thought that I would like this book more than I did. It is an account of a real life couple that survived living in Warsaw, Poland during WWII. They ran the zoo in Warsaw before the war started. I found the Zabinskis, Polish Christians, very interesting and courageous people. They secretly harbored many Polish Jews that might have otherwise been carted off to the death camps.
The author, Diane Ackerman, is a good writer, but I felt like she kept steering off track. I read this book mainly to learn about the Zabinski's experiences, not neccesarily other aspects of WWII. When I want to read a book just about the war, I will choose one. I found myself wandering through the pages until the story came back to Jan and Antonina. I did enjoy when she described the many people that stayed with the Zabinskis and how they enriched each other's lives through the harsh realities of WWII.
Jan and Antonina were some of the unsung heroes that saved over 300 lives during the Nazi's cruel reign in Europe.
