Product Description

the New York Times bestseller: a true story in which the keepers of the Warsaw zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands.

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. 8 pages of illustrations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #292 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Amazon.com Review
Amazon Significant Seven, September 2007: On the heels of Alan Weisman's The World Without Us I picked up Diane Ackerman's The Zookeeper’s Wife. Both books take you to Poland's forest primeval, the Bialowieza, and paint a richly textured portrait of a natural world that few of us would recognize. The similarities end there, however, as Ackerman explores how that sense of natural order imploded under the Nazi occupation of Poland. Jan and Antonina Zabiniski--keepers of the Warsaw Zoo who sheltered Jews from the Warsaw ghetto--serve as Ackerman's lens to this moment in time, and she weaves their experiences and reflections so seamlessly into the story that it would be easy to read the book as Antonina's own miraculous memoir. Jan and Antonina's passion for life in all its diversity illustrates ever more powerfully just how narrow the Nazi worldview was, and what tragedy it wreaked. The Zookeeper’s Wife is a powerful testament to their courage and--like Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise--brings this period of European history into intimate view. --Anne Bartholomew

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Ackerman (A Natural History of the Senses) tells the remarkable WWII story of Jan Zabinski, the director of the Warsaw Zoo, and his wife, Antonina, who, with courage and coolheaded ingenuity, sheltered 300 Jews as well as Polish resisters in their villa and in animal cages and sheds. Using Antonina's diaries, other contemporary sources and her own research in Poland, Ackerman takes us into the Warsaw ghetto and the 1943 Jewish uprising and also describes the Poles' revolt against the Nazi occupiers in 1944. She introduces us to such varied figures as Lutz Heck, the duplicitous head of the Berlin zoo; Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, spiritual head of the ghetto; and the leaders of Zegota, the Polish organization that rescued Jews. Ackerman reveals other rescuers, like Dr. Mada Walter, who helped many Jews pass, giving lessons on how to appear Aryan and not attract notice. Ackerman's writing is viscerally evocative, as in her description of the effects of the German bombing of the zoo area: ...the sky broke open and whistling fire hurtled down, cages exploded, moats rained upward, iron bars squealed as they wrenched apart. This suspenseful beautifully crafted story deserves a wide readership. 8 pages of illus. (Sept.)
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From Booklist
*Starred Review* Jan Zabinski, the innovative director of the Warsaw Zoo, and Antonina, his empathic wife, lived joyfully on the zoo grounds during the 1930s with their young son, Ryszard (Polish for lynx), and a menagerie of animals needing special attention. The zoo was badly damaged by the Nazi blitzkrieg, and their bit of paradise would have been utterly destroyed but for the director of the Berlin Zoo, Lutz Heck, who wanted Jan's help in resurrecting extinct "pure-blooded species" in pursuit of Aryan perfection in the animal kingdom. Resourceful and courageous, the Zabinskis turned the decimated zoo into a refuge and saved the lives of several hundred imperiled Jews. Ackerman has written many stellar works, including A Natural History of the Senses (1990) and An Alchemy of Mind (2004), but this is the book she was born to write. Sharing the Zabinskis' knowledge of and reverence for the natural world and drawing on her poet's gift for dazzling metaphor, she captures with breathtaking precision and discernment our kinship with animals, the barbarity of war, Antonina's unbounded kindness and keen delight in "life's sensory bazaar," Jan's daring work with the Polish Underground, and the audacity of the Zabinskis' mission of mercy. An exemplary work of scholarship and an "ecstasy of imagining," Ackerman's affecting telling of the heroic Zabinskis' dramatic story illuminates the profound connection between humankind and nature, and celebrates life's beauty, mystery, and tenacity. Seaman, Donna

Customer Reviews

The Zookeeper's Daughter - Why You Should Not Fear Reading Non-Fiction
The Zookeeper's Daughter is non-fiction. Most of what I read is non-fiction because oftentimes, true stories are more compelling than fiction. The Zookeeper's Daughter, well-researched, and wonderfully written, is one of the many true stories out there that should be recommended reading. Its author has woven a beautiful story out of what could have been a mundane chronological review of the subject's diaries. A page-turner, The Zookeeper's Daughter contains beautiful descriptions, believable characterizations, and a thorough understanding of what it meant to be caught in Poland during the Hitler Era. I learned a great deal about life in wartime Warsaw, and in particular, about the Polish Resistance, from reading this book. The main subjects of The Zookeeper's Daughters are compelling examples of humanity in the midst of chaos and madness, of courage in a time of darkness and despair. We often times think solely of the plight of people during war; this book will open many eyes to the perils of war for all of God's creatures. It describes the exceptional love and care that true stewards of God's creation show to animals and people alike, and their willingness to place their own lives at risk because of that love. A story that ranks up there with Schindler's List, The Zookeeper's Wife is definitely on my top five books for 2008.

An uplifting story
The Zookeeper's Wife by Ackerman
This is a true story based on the husband and wife caretakers of the Warsaw Zoo during WWII. It tells a great deal about the animals in the zoo and the caretakers; there is also the story of the Underground movement and the help given to remove Jews from the Warsaw ghetto by the zoo caretakers. These escapees became the guests at the main house at the zoo and were often placed in the animal houses, to hide them from the German soldiers.

Profoundly moving
This book is an emotional roller coaster. Ackerman starts out displaying her marvelous descriptive skills, setting the stage.

"...on warm days, when the linden trees' creamy yellow tassels drugged the air with the numbing scent of honey and the rhumba of bees."

The linden trees are mentioned throughout the book as a bit of respite and a oasis of normality.

Ackerman's telling of the atrocities that happened in the Warsaw ghetto is strong and powerful and numbing. She counters that with the crux of the book which is the story of the bravery and creativity and survival skills of Antonina, the zoo keeper's wife, and the underground activities of Jan, her husband. Their story is surrounded by the amazing stories of the people of Poland who risked everything to save those at risk. The bravery and ingenuity and humanity wouldn't be believed if this was a book of fiction.

I feel enriched in having read this book and having my eyes opened to their story.