Acclaimed American naturalist and historian Diane Ackerman has turned her attentions to Warsaw in a new book published this Autumn. The Zookeeper's Wife, a true tale of Nazi-occupied Warsaw, has garnered exceptional reviews in the press thus far.
Scores of books about the Second World War are published each month, but Ackerman's story is a decidedly unusual one. It tells the tale of Jan Zabinski and his wife Antonina, keepers of Warsaw's zoo, who hid some 300 Jews from the Nazi Ghetto.
Warsaw's zoo took a severe battering from German bombs when the Nazis invaded in September 1939. Many of the finest surviving animals were then carted off to Germany, others were shot by troops after drinking binges. In spite of all the damage, the Zabinskis stayed on and they were allowed to run a pig farm. However, Mr Zabinski had already joined Poland's underground army, and over the next few years, the couple devoted themselves to hiding people who had fallen victim to Hitler's policies. Even the lion's den became a hideout.
The Zookeeper's Wife retrieves for posterity one of the most extraordinary sagas from the annals of the Righteous Among Nations. The Washington Post described it as "simultaneously grave and exuberant, wise and playful," whilst The LA Times hailed it as "a shining book beyond category."
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