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The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story | 
 enlarge | Author: Diane Ackerman
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy Used: $6.45
You Save: $17.50 (73%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  81 reviews
Sales Rank: 5303
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.3
ISBN: 0393061728
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5318350943841
EAN: 9780393061727
ASIN: 0393061728
Publication Date: September 4, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Ex-library hardcover in good condition, 2007, mylar covered dustjacket glued to inside cover at flaps. Many library stamps and labels, dj & cover lightly scuffed on edges and corners, number written in marker on outer page edge surface, no markings inside except library ones.
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Amazon.com Review
Amazon Significant Seven, September 2007: On the heels of Alan Weisman's The World Without Us I picked up Diane Ackerman's The Zookeepers Wife. Both books take you to Poland's forest primeval, the Bialowieza, and paint a richly textured portrait of a natural world that few of us would recognize. The similarities end there, however, as Ackerman explores how that sense of natural order imploded under the Nazi occupation of Poland. Jan and Antonina Zabiniski--keepers of the Warsaw Zoo who sheltered Jews from the Warsaw ghetto--serve as Ackerman's lens to this moment in time, and she weaves their experiences and reflections so seamlessly into the story that it would be easy to read the book as Antonina's own miraculous memoir. Jan and Antonina's passion for life in all its diversity illustrates ever more powerfully just how narrow the Nazi worldview was, and what tragedy it wreaked. The Zookeepers Wife is a powerful testament to their courage and--like Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise--brings this period of European history into intimate view. --Anne Bartholomew
Product Description
A true story—as powerful as Schindler's List—in which the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands.
When Germany invaded Poland, Stuka bombers devastated Warsaw—and the city's zoo along with it. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski began smuggling Jews into empty cages. Another dozen "guests" hid inside the Zabinskis' villa, emerging after dark for dinner, socializing, and, during rare moments of calm, piano concerts. Jan, active in the Polish resistance, kept ammunition buried in the elephant enclosure and stashed explosives in the animal hospital. Meanwhile, Antonina kept her unusual household afloat, caring for both its human and its animal inhabitants—otters, a badger, hyena pups, lynxes.
With her exuberant prose and exquisite sensitivity to the natural world, Diane Ackerman engages us viscerally in the lives of the zoo animals, their keepers, and their hidden visitors. She shows us how Antonina refused to give in to the penetrating fear of discovery, keeping alive an atmosphere of play and innocence even as Europe crumbled around her. 8 pages of illustrations.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 76 more reviews...
 Important reading October 6, 2008
When average people are confronted by extreme circumstances and respond by behaving with extraordinary compassion and bravery, their example challenges us all. The story of the Zabinski family and their efforts sheltering Polish Jews and Resistance fighters in the remains of the Warsaw Zoo during World War II is eye opening. As the Nazi regime and their heinous crimes fade from living memory, it is meticulously documented stories like this that are crucial to keeping the truth alive. The author's style is confusing at times as she begins a story, then diverts to give us a great deal of background information, and then resumes the story pages later. The paperback version is a mere reprint of the hardcover, complete with photographs and consistent pagination.
 Polish Christian zookeepers bravely tend to their menagerie and menage, saving hundreds of Jews from the Nazis September 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Zookeepers Antonina and Jan Zabinski and their son Rys were three of the many, brave, caring persons who helped Jews survive certain death at the hands of the Nazis. The multi-lingual mom and dad's biggest strengths, beyond bravery, were their abilities to act quickly and correctly during a crisis. Eventually, with most of the animals moved elsewhere, the zoo was set up with the various "guests" being assigned animal names. When the arrival of the authorities was imminent, the resourceful Antonina would play (p 178) `Offenbach's "Go, Go, Go to Crete!"' to warn those in hiding. Through their connections to both unsuspecting bad guys and other good guys willing to risk their lives for the cause, they were able to help in ways that others could not due to their affiliation with the zoo. Author Diane Ackerman's research sources consisted primarily of Antonia's writings as well as interviews of both husband and wife. The writing style she employs to tell their story gives it a very authentic feel and allows the reader to get to know Antonia Zabinski (as much as one can with thirdhand knowledge). For example, on the subject of their varied, harried schedule, "attuned" to the needs of the animals, (p 20) "This brought a slated novelty to each day, and though the problems might be taxing, it imprinted her life with small welcome moments of surprise." Additionally, one learns about both the upside and downside of their decision to help: concerns and worries about each person's safety, as well as anecdotes of the exploits employed to fulfill their mission. One of my favorite examples of the latter is a situation involving the Zabinski's son, Encountering young male "guests" in their hiding place, (p 253) Rys (meaning lynx) states his name. One of the boys, aware of the family's use of animal names, replies that his name is "Pheasant." The Zookeepers Wife provides a well-researched and written look at the lives of an unconventional family in their attempts to help the Jews. Also good: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Life in Auschwitz by Primo Levy and Time's Arrow by Martin Amis.
The Zookeeper's Wife September 28, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a powerful read and should be required reading for all high school seniors. One must learn about the atrocities of the halocaust; remember history can be repeated.
 Terrifying and moving September 11, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
The most incredible thing about this book is that it really happened. Jan and Antonina Zabinski were zookeepers at the Warsaw Zoo and were disgusted and horrified by the treatment of the local Jews by the Nazis. As the Warsaw ghetto was gradually cleared by the total annihilation of its occupants, Jan devises ways to bring them to the Zoo secretly and to hide them in the cages which were formerly occupied with exotic animals, now stolen by the Nazis and sent to Germany to fulfill Hitler's mad scheme to "purify" even the animals and to attempt to restore the ancient lines of extinct species. How Antonina managed to keep a cool exterior in the face of the savagery of the soldiers beggars belief and if, as a reader, one attempts to feel the terror of the victims in one's own imagination, I, for one, broke out in a shivering sweat of horror. These incredibly brave people deserve the accolades heaped upon them by the Jewry after the war. Diane Ackerman writes this book as seen through the eyes of Antonina, interrupting the narrative to insert explanatory excerpts, and does a magnificent job of explaining Antonina's amazing rapport with all the animals in her care. It's a masterfully written account of how a few exectionally brave people saved the lives of so many innocents at a time when Poland was ruled by an evil madman who was trying to control and reshape humans and animals to fulfill the Nazi ideal of the worship of their kind of purity in all things.
A Courageous Knowing Woman in War Torn Poland September 9, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
In a superbly told epic story of survival under terrifying circumstances, The Zookeeper's Wife depicts war and nature together, juxtaposing empathic descriptions of nature and animals and the brutal Nazi occupation of Warsaw, Poland. The narrative draws the reader into the daily activities of a family during years of deprivation, from 1939 pre-war Poland to occupation by the Russian army in 1945.
Combining history and the intimacy of family life, naturalist Diane Ackerman relates how Antonina Zabinski and her husband, Jan, sheltered and saved more than three hundred Jews in their villa and adjacent buildings on the grounds of the Warsaw Zoo. Antonina, a quiet, introspective, knowing woman of the early to mid twentieth century, sensed the underside of things and from that deep knowledge, tempered the violence in which she lived. Her calm courage in the face of great difficulty is never overstated, nor is she made out to be a heroine. Rather, she is a woman doing what she does best and doing it amazingly well in the horrifying circumstance of occupied Poland seventy years ago.
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