Whenever I say Antonina or Jan thought, wondered, felt, I'm quoting from their writings or interviews. In telling their story, I've relied on many sources detailed in the bibliography, but most of all on the memoirs ('based on my diary and loose notes') of 'the zookeeper's wife,' Antonina Żabińska, rich with the sensuous spell of the zoo her autobiographical children's books, such as Life at the Zoo Jan Żabiński's books and recollections and the interviews Antonina and Jan gave to Polish, Hebrew, and Yiddish newspapers. But in wartime Poland, when even handing a thirsty Jew a cup of water was punishable by death, their heroism stands out as all the more startling.
Their story has fallen between the seams of history, as radically compassionate acts sometimes do. J AN AND ANTONINA ŻABIŃSKI WERE CHRISTIAN ZOOKEEPERS horrified by Nazi racism, who capitalized on the Nazis' obsession with rare animals in order to save over three hundred doomed people.
