The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story

The author begins the second section of the narrative by describing the inhumane restrictions Nazis placed upon the citizens of Warsaw and particularly the Jews, who were now confined to the Ghetto. She writes:

[To receive food] Germans, Poles, and Jews stood in three separate lines […] with Germans receiving 2,613 calories, Poles 669 calories, and Jews only 184 calories per day. In case anyone missed the point, German Governor Frank declared: I ask nothing of the Jews except that they disappear (91).

The Nazi efforts to humiliate, degrade, and isolate the Jewish population led to the establishment of the Warsaw Ghetto on October 12, 1940. All Jewish citizens in the region were forced into a condensed neighborhood of about 10-12 city blocks. The population of the area at its height was 400,000.

On one occasion, a Nazi bombing run separated Jan and Antonina from Ryś. When he finally turned up at home, he explained that his teacher had sequestered schoolchildren after the blast until their safety could be assured.

From his childhood, Jan had been a classmate and playmate of many Jewish Warsaw citizens. When he saw how the Nazis treated them, he decided to save as many of them as possible while fighting the Nazis in every way he could. Because the zoo was an extremely unlikely place for underground activity or as a melina (hiding place) for Jewish refugees, it proved exactly the sort of place Jan wanted to use for his resistance activities. He noted, “[…] it never occurred to the Germans that a Pole would be that gutsy, because they regarded Slavs as a fainthearted and a stupid race fit only for physical labor” (100).

By the summer of 1940, the Żabińskis begin to receive escapees from the Ghetto on a regular basis. Because of their work with animals, they know a lot about camouflage and understand the principles of hiding in plain sight. Jan and Antonina typically do not discuss their individual activities. The less each knows, the safer everyone is. Antonina provides shelter, comfort, and necessities for the escapees, whom she and Jan call Guests. Meanwhile, Jan leads a unit of underground soldiers who specialize in sabotage. Both Guests and members of the Underground refer to the zoo as “The House Under a Crazy Star.” For Guests, it is far nicer than the Ghetto. Antonina sometimes takes the bodies of dead crows the Nazis use for target practice and turns them into a Polish delicacy. Unfortunately, on one occasion Nazi soldiers see Ryś playing with his pet pig, Moryś. They steal the friendly swine for their own supper.

Though the pig farm supplies meat for many people and gives Jan the opportunity to move freely around Warsaw, it does not last beyond midwinter, 1941. The Nazis refuse to give coal to the zoo. As a result of the cold, the animals grow ill, many die of dysentery, and the rest have to be put down. An opportunistic bureaucrat hears about this and tries to take over the zoo, replacing the Polish plants with German plants he wants to grow. However, the German President (Mayor) of Warsaw, Danglu Leist, comes to the zoo and discovers the bureaucrat’s plan. Leist compels the Polish Vice President of Warsaw, Julian Kulski, to intervene and make Jan the “magistrate” of “garden plots.” Secretly, Kulski is also a member of the Underground. This new job allows Jan free movement around Warsaw and permits the family to remain in the villa.

Ackerman describes a relationship between the family and Dr. Szymon Tenenbaum, an entomologist consigned to the Ghetto. The doctor asks Jan to safeguard his collection of rare insects, which numbers about 400,000. One day, a German bureaucrat named Ziegler, also an entomologist, arrives at the zoo requesting to see Tenenbaum’s collection. Because of their mutual friend, Ziegler allows Jan to come through his office front door and out the back door into the Ghetto. This allows Jan to lead a number of Jews out to safety. Over time, the guard who lets Jan in and out of the Ghetto becomes suspicious of the strangers he takes with him when he leaves. Jan cleverly shows the soldier his own pass, which he has attached to the escaping Jew. “Then Jan [shakes] the guard’s hand good naturedly, smile[s], and sa[ys] solemnly: ‘Don’t worry, I never break the law’” (131). Unfortunately, Tenenbaum who made all the escapes possible, refused to try to escape the Ghetto and died of a stomach ulcer.

The author discusses Jan’s ability to assume different personas depending upon his situation. She relates this to his years of working with animals and studying their behaviors. She writes, “[…] all guests and visitors had to cultivate paranoia and abide by the strict rules of their fiefdom” (135). Jan has a reputation for being a perfectionist, and while it seems that he takes reckless chances, in actuality he has backup plans in case things do not go as intended. This comes in handy when he helps Tannenbaum’s widow, Lonia, escape from the Ghetto. When the war ends, Lonia donates 250,000 of Tenenbaum’s insect specimens to the Polish Zoological Museum.

Ackerman describes the desperate health situation within the Warsaw Ghetto. She illustrates the impact that pestilence and disease can have upon large gatherings of people without adequate health measures, stating that “more men died from lice borne diseases in the American Civil War than on its battlefields” (141). The author explains that the ghettos became breeding grounds for various illnesses with high rates of mortality, including typhus, tuberculosis, and dysentery. There were few doctors and little medicine. In addition to the terrible hygiene and disease situation, the spiritual health of the community was also under attack. She describes the work of Rabbi Kalonymus Shapira, who managed to encourage the Hasidic Jews within the Ghetto as they faced extreme persecution. Through his leadership, many Ghetto dwellers used meditation and prayer to face the terrible atrocities they suffered.

The author compares the Guests who flow through the care of the villa to the multitudes of migrating birds that use Warsaw as a major pathway in their annual flight. When the bitterly cold winter of 1941 ends, Guests begin to return to the confines of the villa. One new resident is Wicek (Vincent), an arctic hare that befriends Ryś and becomes his permanent companion. Indeed, to make the villa more livable and friendly, Antonina brings in a wide variety of animals and gives them free rein of the house.

The author also describes the network of Gentile helpers in Warsaw who provide papers, bring in food and medicine, and spirit out many Jews from the Ghetto. This network also interacts with foreign governments that send in parachutists who bring money and military supplies from overseas. Warsaw itself tries to preserve the basics of life that the Nazis have sought to eliminate. There are underground schools, universities, and even an all-city soccer tournament. There are also safe houses and places of refuge, like coffee shops that offer Jewish people a place to relax for a few moments before returning to their hiding places.

The guest whom Antonina loves and wants to retain in the villa more than any other is Magdalena Gross. Antonina goes out of her way to provide clay for Magdalena to mold. In return, Magdalena makes a sculpture of Ryś.

Here, the author dwells on the close friendship that develops between Antonina and Magdalena Gross. Antonina gives Magdalena the code name “Starling,” “in part because of Antonina’s fondness for the bird, but also because she pictured her flying from nest to nest to avoid capture, as one melina after another became burnt” (164). In Magdalena’s story, Ackerman reveals the triumph of a creative spirit as well as the emotional stultification that occurs from continual fear and trauma. Because she so often hears the warning song, “Go, Go, Go to Crete,” Magdalena realizes that she will never be able to enjoy the song again once the war is over.

Overworked and now pregnant, Antonina takes to her bed in the fall of 1942 with what is apparently phlebitis. She spends three months in bed while others, whom she has cared for, seize the opportunity to care for her.

A cryptic warning letter comes to the Ghetto, telling of the new Treblinka concentration camp being constructed near Warsaw. Jews begin to be removed to that camp in July 1942. Over a three-month period, 265,000 Jews are moved from the Ghetto to Treblinka.

Despite the appalling scale of the tragedy, there are also beautiful tales of sacrifice. These include the story of Janusz Korczak, who founded an orphanage for children in the Ghetto. Korczak was repeatedly offered sanctuary, but he refused to leave the children behind, choosing to go to his own death rather than abandon the orphans in his care.

The deportation of Jews to Treblinka does not completely end the possibility of saving people from the Ghetto. About 30,000 “wild Jews” remain in the Ghetto, and rescuers know there are many Jews hidden among the Gentile population of Warsaw. Instrumental in this rescue operation is a group that goes by “Zegota.” Ackerman writes, “Drawing together a consortium of Polish Catholic and political groups, Zegota’s sole purpose was rescue […] it was the only organization of its kind in occupied Europe during the war, one that historians credit with saving 28,000 Jews in Warsaw” (176). The Żabińskis’ villa becomes an important part of Zegota’s work.

Because they see it as wasted land, the Nazis want to make use of the zoo compound and decide they will start a fur farm. They bring in a Polish man who comes to be called the “fox man.” The Żabińskis are uncertain of whether he can be trusted. Eventually, he shows up and says he is moving into the villa. He turns out to be a great ally as well as a phenomenal pianist and an eccentric who entertains many guests. Many unusual animals arrive during this time as well.

The winter of 1942 is a particularly capricious time for Antonina, who is still bedridden and suffering from an uncertain illness. Summary executions are a frequent occurrence. Simply walking about close to curfew is extremely dangerous. One night, Jan brings a hamster home. Ryś becomes particularly fond of this new pet. This marks the beginning of the “hamster era.”