Ackerman, Diane. The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story. W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2007. Inspired by Antonina Zabinski’s unpublished diary, The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story recounts the true story of how the Zabinskis saved the lives of more than three hundred Jews, who had been imprisoned in the Warsaw ghetto following Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. In 1929, Jan Zabinski became director of the Warsaw Zoo, and the first few chapters of the novel describe what life was like for the couple there. Besides running the household and nursing sick animals, Antonina oversaw greeting important guests from both Poland and abroad. “Like most humans, they did abide by clocks, but their routine was never quite routine, made up as it was of compatible …show more content…
According to Yad Vashem, the Righteous Among the Nations are non-Jews who took great risks to save Jews during the Holocaust. Although members of the Righteous came from different nations, religions, and occupations, what they all shared was their stance against injustice and their protection of Jewish neighbors, during times of hostility and indifference. Currently recognized Righteous can be found organized in a database on their website. Their article on the Zabinskis summarizes the extraordinary measures and risks taken by the couple that led them to become worthy of their title as Righteous Among the Nation.
Meizel, Irena. “From the Letter of Irena Meizel to Yad Vashem, November 1962.” Righteous Among the Nations, Yad Vashem Remembrance Authority.
Irena Meizel was one of many Jews saved by Jan and Antonina Zabinski during the Holocaust. In November 1962, she wrote a letter to Yad Vashem, testifying before the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany of how the Zabinskis saved her and many other Jews when the Nazis took over Warsaw,