"Our zoo was full of life," wrote Antonina Żabińska.

"Our zoo was full of life," wrote Antonina Żabińska. 

After being orphaned at a young age, Antonina found comfort in the company of animals. 

It was this shared affection for animals that brought her and her husband, Jan, together. 

At the time of the German invasion of Poland, Jan served as the director of the Warsaw Zoo, and the couple lived on its grounds.

The war was devastating for the zoo. German bombings killed many animals and destroyed structures during the siege of Warsaw. 

But in the wake of this destruction, Jan and Antonina found a new purpose for their zoo. In 1940, they began risking their lives to help Jews imprisoned in the Warsaw ghetto. 

Later, they helped smuggle Jews out of the ghetto, hiding them in their home and on the zoo grounds. 

Antonina described their new guests as “people stripped of everything but their lives.” More than shelter, Antonina provided a sense of peace to the guests.

 "They desperately needed hope that a safe haven even existed, that the war's horrors would one day end,” she wrote.

In 1965, Yad Vashem honored Jan and Antonina as Righteous Among the Nations for their rescue work. 

Antonina’s diary inspired the book "The Zookeeper’s Wife," which later became the basis for the movie of the same name.

Photo: Yad Vashem

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