Summary and Analysis of The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story

Based on the Book by Diane Ackerman

Worth Books

• Publisher: Worth Books
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781504021883
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

So much to read, so little time? This brief overview of The Zookeeper's Wife tells you what you need to know—before or after you read Diane Ackerman's book.
Crafted and edited with care, Worth Books set the standard for quality and give you the tools you need to be a well-informed reader.
 
This short summary and analysis of The Zookeeper's Wife includes:

• Historical context
• Chapter-by-chapter overviews
• Profiles of the main characters
• Detailed timeline of key events
• Important quotes
• Fascinating trivia
• Glossary of terms
• Supporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work

About The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman:
 
The Zookeeper's Wife is the story of two unsung heroes of World War II: Jan and Antonina ?abi?ski, Polish zookeepers who risked their lives to rescue Jews from death at the hands of the Nazis. The heroic couple hid more than three hundred fugitives in their home and in the empty animal cages of the Warsaw Zoo.
 
Diane Ackerman vividly evokes the extreme brutality and heroism that defined WWII-era Poland. The Zookeeper's Wife is a testament to the bravery of those who resisted tyranny through radical compassion.
 
The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of nonfiction.
 

Summary

Author’s Note

To tell the story of Christian zookeepers Antonina and Jan Żabiński, Ackerman consulted Antonina’s memoirs and children’s books, as well as Jan’s books and recollections. She studied the interviews they gave to newspapers after the war, and used photographs for physical details. She also researched Nazi ideology, particularly their obsessions with zoology and pure breeding.

Ackerman’s interest in the Żabińskis stems from her Polish heritage: Ackerman’s grandparents fled Poland during the war. They shared Polish tradition and folklore with her, including a remarkably relevant story about a Jewish man who dresses up like a lion in the village zoo.

Chapter 1

Summer, 1935

In the years before the war, Jan and Antonina Żabiński work as the directors of the Warsaw Zoo, where exotic and native animals live in lush habitats made to recreate their native forests, tundra, or wetlands. Jan is a talented zookeeper, naturalist, and biologist; but Antonina possesses a particular talent with animals, a “sixth sense” that allows her to connect and communicate with them.

The Żabińskis live with their young son, Ryś, in a villa just off the zoo grounds. There, they play hosts to a panoply of guests, human and non-human alike—including an eagle chick, a wolf cub, and two baby lynxes rescued from Poland’s primeval Białowieża Forest.

Need to Know: The Żabińskis share an unconventional life at the Warsaw Zoo, filled with the joys, challenges, and surprises of caring for animals.

Chapter 2

While Jan works with the zookeepers to stay up to date on the animals’ health and behavior, Antonina gives tours of the zoo to visitors. The Żabińskis have ambitions for the Warsaw Zoo: Jan hopes to one day build a large enclosure for some of the animals to share, emulating their natural habitat. The zoo boasts several prize animals, including the twelfth elephant ever born in captivity.

The Warsaw Zoo is a clamoring bazaar of color and life. The scents and sounds of the animals fill the air, and the Żabińskis encourage local and visiting groups to hold events on zoo grounds. Antonina believes that the zoo offers visitors a chance to connect with their animalistic nature, and is a way to promote conservation.

Need to Know: The Warsaw Zoo is a nexus between animal and human life, where humans care for and observe animals and animals remind humans of their place in the natural world.

Chapter 3

Antonina and Jan befriend Magdalena Gross, a famous Jewish sculptor. The zoo animals captivate Magdalena—she spends hours observing them in their enclosures. The animals become her models—the zoo, her art studio.

In the summer of 1939, Antonina takes Ryś on vacation to rural Rejentówka, where they spend idyllic summer days playing with their new pet badger and exploring the forest. Isolated and happy in the little cottage with her animal friends and Ryś, Antonina feels far away from the political tensions roiling Europe. But when she returns to Warsaw, her sense of peace shatters—the city is preparing for an imminent German invasion.

Need to Know: The life that Antonina knew before the war—the life of security and madcap fun—has begun to fall apart.

Chapter 4

Warsaw, September 1, 1939

Germany launches its invasion of Poland on the September 1, 1939. Planes screech overhead; bombs reduce houses to flaming rubble. Antonina flees to Rejentówka, where Ryś and his nanny remain. German aircraft fly low over the road out of Warsaw, strafing the fleeing women, children, and elderly. Antonina arrives safely at the cottage; Jan joins her a few days later. Together, the three Żabińskis return to Warsaw.

German air raids rend the skies over Warsaw morning and night. At the zoo, the Żabińskis try to calm the terrified animals. But when a bomb hits the polar bears’ enclosure and frees the bears, Polish soldiers shoot all of the zoo’s predatory and aggressive inhabitants—including a large male elephant. A day later, a Polish soldier knocks at the door. He orders Jan to join the Polish army on the northwestern front and directs all civilians to vacate the zoo. Antonina and Ryś leave the zoo to stay with Jan’s sister-in-law.

Need to Know: The violent wrecking of the Warsaw Zoo mirrors the sudden destruction of everything the Żabińskis understood about their lives. As the city falls, so do the Żabińskis’ dreams of a bright future at the zoo.

Chapter 5

Antonina and Ryś hide and wait in the small fourth floor flat on Kapucyńska Street. Desperate to protect Ryś in the event that the building collapses, she leaves her sister-in-law and relocates to the ground floor, where there is a lampshade store and workshop. The two elderly storeowners offer food and shelter to those who fled their homes. Theirs is a city under siege—every day, Antonina, Ryś, and the others in the shop face the possibility of their own death. When the French and English declare war on Germany, the Poles rejoice; but the intervention they hope for does not come.

One day, Antonina braves the bombers and heads toward the zoo, determined to save what animals she can.

Need to Know: Faced with the threat of death, Antonina’s animal instincts kick in—she does what she can to protect her young and her territory.

Chapter 6

The Nazi bombs devastate the zoo. Flames engulf some of the animal enclosures, animals lie dead or wounded in their cages, and some animals escape into Warsaw’s streets. And, somehow, some survive—Antonina finds the rare lynxes, bison, and Przywalski horses still alive and does what little she can to calm them. Back at the lampshade store, Antonina and the huddled survivors listen for news on the radio; they begin to understand that Warsaw will fall to the Germans.

Then Jan, who had gone off to the war front, arrives at the door of the shop.

Jan left Warsaw weeks before as part of a group of men looking for an army unit to join. After three unsuccessful weeks, they disbanded. While overnighting at the farm of some acquaintances, Jan ran into Dr. Muller, a Nazi zoologist who, by pretending to arrest Jan, was able to bring him back safely to Warsaw.

After Poland surrenders and the bombings stop, the Żabińskis return to the zoo and salvage what they can. Outside the villa, the German soldiers march in the streets. Hitler installs his personal lawyer, Hans Frank, as ruler of occupied Poland. Jan immediately forges ties with the Polish Underground Resistance. Also called the Home Army, the resistance sabotages and undermines the Nazi occupiers.

Need to Know: Warsaw reels from the catastrophic German invasion. After the surrender, the Polish people piece their lives back together under radically altered circumstances—and some of them plan how they’ll fight back against the occupying Germans.

Chapter 7

Normally, October would bring quieter days and new animals to the zoo, but in 1939, the zoo is empty and wrecked. Antonina fears the Germans will liquidate the zoo.

Then, the Żabińskis receive news of a coming visitor: Lutz Heck, a friend from the International Association of Zoo Directors. Keeper of the Berlin Zoo, Heck has become an influential and powerful Nazi. The Żabińskis don’t know whether they can trust him or not. Though he’s always been a little sweet on Antonina (tall and blonde, she’s an ideal Aryan woman...

Table of contents

• Title
• Disclaimer
• Contents
• Context
• Overview
• Summary
• Timeline
• Cast of Characters
• Direct Quotes and Analysis
• Trivia
• What’s That Word?
• Critical Response
• About Diane Ackerman
• For Your Information
• Bibliography
• Copyright