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.
The remarkable, nearly first-hand account of the Warsaw Zoo in wartime; of all I've read of WWII, the fate of zoo animals as tied to the Nazi obsession with genetic purity would have never crossed my mind— not to mention the many human lives saved because of it. Well and thoroughly told, the only thing I could have wished for was more than a few paragraphs on the post-war reconstruction. And that's more a compliment than a complaint... so good was the story, I wanted to know much more.
Reading updates
-
Started reading
-
1 April, 2009:
Finished reading
-
1 April, 2009:
Reviewed