In that time, they established a fascinating ecosystem in which they lived alongside the animals.
Jan (Johan Heldenbergh) and Antonina (Jessica Chastain) Zabinski had taken over running the Warsaw Zoo a few years before the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. Based on Diane Ackerman’s book of the same name, the extraordinary film boasts a simple message: Everyone has a part to play in helping those in need. A fascinating true story.The Zookeeper’s Wife, which opens in theaters this weekend, highlights the riveting true story of how one family saved hundreds of Jewish lives in Nazi-occupied Poland. It will be interesting to see what Hollywood does with this tale. She portrays Jan as cool under pressure, demanding and critical, while Antonina comes across as clever and intuitive, but they are hard to connect with, perhaps because Ackerman had to base her tale on diaries and notes. Zookeepers by disposition, not fate, even in wartime with food scarce, they needed to remain among animals for life to feel true…”Īckerman’s extensive research is apparent on every page, as well as in the 21 pages of notes on the chapters, the 7-page bibliography and the comprehensive index. “In prewar days, the villa had harboured more exotic animals, including a pair of baby otters, but the Zabinksis continued their tradition of people and animals coexisting under one roof, over and over welcoming stray animals into their lives and an already stressed household. As an officer in the Home Army, and very active in the Resistance, Jan is often absent an it is up to Antonina to keep things running smoothly, and facilitate the passage of some three hundred people to safety. Sometimes the text does get a bit bogged down in details (insect collections, sculpture, extinct species and back breeding), but the ingenuity of these brave people is amazing, and their generosity is truly uplifting. As the zoo cycles through different legitimate incarnations (pig farm, fur farm), the one business that is soon a constant, very much behind the scenes, is the concealment of Jews trying to escape the Ghetto and Nazi persecution.Īfter initial descriptions of the time before occupation, the bulk of the story tells of the Guests that passed through the Zabinski’s Villa, both human and animal, with all their quirks, traits and oddities. When Poland is occupied by the Nazis in 1939, the animals that aren’t killed during bombing raids are stolen by Berlin zookeepers, and Jan and Antonina need something else to keep them busy. It tells the story of Antonina Zabinska and her husband, Director of the Warsaw Zoo, Jan Zabinski. It is non-fiction, but often reads like a novel, a plain narrative with spurts of lush descriptive prose, for example: “In a country under a death sentence, with seasonal cues like morning light or drifting constellations hidden behind shutters, time changed shape, lost some of its elasticity, and Antonina wrote that her days grew even more ephemeral and ‘brittle, like soap bubbles breaking’” The Zookeeper’s Wife is the eleventh book by American author, Diane Ackerman. That takes a special stripe of bravery rarely valued in wartime” “One of the most remarkable things about Antonina was her determination to include play, animals, wonder, curiosity, marvel, and a wide blaze of innocence in a household where all dodged the ambient dangers, horrors, and uncertainties. The story of WWII and the Holocaust is often the background for literature - fiction and nonfiction - but this book stands out as a testament to the beauty of people like Antonia and Jan. Using Antonia's diaries, her children books, Jan's interviews, face-to-face interviews with survivors, and other sources, Ackerman weaves a beautiful story. Antonia - as the lioness that guards the family villa and its 300 or so Guests - must face off with German soldiers and SS agents while feeding the household (pets included) and always facing the fear of being discovered. Ackerman recreates a story of heroism into a story of human nature, particularly in Antonia. The reader experiences the sensations of the two protagonists as they fight in the Underground and use the zoo as a station for the passage of Jewish citizens escaping the Nazis. She tells the story of Jan and Antonia Zabinski, the director of the Warsaw Zoo and his wife, during the Polish Occupation during WWII, with beautiful prose that stimulates all the reader's senses. The beauty in Diane Ackerman's The Zookeeper's Wife lies in her attention to detail.