4. Jan and Antonina Żabiński
Jan Żabiński and Antonina Żabińska lived in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. Jan was a zoologist and the director of the Warsaw Zoo, and he and his wife Antonina lived on the grounds in a villa. Jan, Antonina, and their son Ryszard used their villa and the zoo itself to hide over 300 Jews from the Nazis.
Jan’s profession as a zoologist allowed him to cross into the Warsaw ghettos to study the animal and plant life there. He was able to remain in contact with many of his prewar colleagues who lived inside the ghetto and helped them find shelter outside of the ghettos.
In September 1939, before the air assault on Warsaw, the Nazis arrived at the Warsaw Zoo and emptied the cages of animals, either killing them or sending them to Berlin. Many of the cages in the zoo were empty, but the Nazis turned the zoo into a pig farm so the couple would keep the zoo open. The Żabińskis began to take in Jews and hide them in the cages and their home until they could find shelter somewhere else.
They also used the cages in the zoo to hide weapons for the Polish resistance. The Żabińskis even developed a secret code for when the Nazis came to inspect the zoo. Antonina would play certain songs on her piano, each with a designated meaning so that those in hiding knew what was happening. Jan was a member of the Polish resistance army Armia Krajowa, and he fought against the Germans in August and September 1944 in the Warsaw Polish Uprising. He was taken as a prisoner of war and transported to Germany.
Antonina stayed behind in Warsaw, where she continued to shelter and look after Jews in hiding. The Żabińskis were honored in 1968 at a tree-planting ceremony at Yad Vashem that honored the Righteous Among the Nations, a term used to describe non-Jews who assisted Jews in hiding during World War II.
She kept a diary during the war years, which author Diane Ackerman used as source material for her book about the Żabińskis, The Zookeeper’s Wife, published in 2007. In 2017, the book was turned into a film of the same name.