The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman

I stumbled across this non-fiction book when it was sitting on a table of free stuff at Barnes & Noble. I hadn't heard of it before but I have an interest in stories about Jewish heritage, that tell stories about survivors of the Holocaust, and tell stories about those who at great risk to themselves helped Jews survive WWII. This sounded like it fit into that interest so I grabbed a copy.

The Zookeeper's Wife is Antonia. She and her husband Jan (the zookeeper) lived on the grounds of the Warsaw Zoo. They cared deeply for the animals in their charge. Antonia even hand raised orphaned babies and cared for injured or sick animals in their home. She was very interested in animal behavior, she too the time to learn how they thought and formed the most interesting bonds with the animals. Jan ran his zoo in such a way that human visitors and animals were cared for and respected. There is a good deal in this book about the creation of the zoo and about the animals it housed. At times it might seem dry or leave you wondering why so many details instead of talking about the heroic acts that were happening. I wondered it while reading, but in the end I think it was because it helped explain the choices made, how Antonia was able to reason out how to handle certain situations, and it was capturing a history that might have been lost otherwise. But also, and maybe most importantly, it was what was real and important to Jan and Antonia.

When Germany under the rule of Hitler invaded Poland, when the Jews were forced into the ghetto, the zoo became an important hub of the underground movement to save as many Jews as possible. Some Guests came to stay for much of the war years, others stopped only long enough to be safe while longer term arraignments could be made. One of the people who made a pit stop at the zoo was Irene Sendler, herself a hero, saving many Jewish children, and the subject of the book Life in a Jar:The Irena Sendler Project.

What this couple did, what this woman did, because most of the time it was just her, her husband was away from the zoo working in order to allow them to feed themselves and the Guests, sneaking Jews out of the Ghetto, and later fighting with the Underground. Antonia was the housewife and conductor of what was going on at home. She kept people fed, hidden, calm, and even happy at times. She was the backbone of their operation and because of what they did, hundreds were saved, and of all those who stayed with them all but one family survived the war years.

These stories, people who risked everything, to help those who were being hunted in order to be destroyed, they need to be told, they deserve to be told.

(Finished July 5, 2015)