Zookeeper's Wife / Diane Ackerman 376 p.

Naturalist Diane Ackerman begins with a lovely description of the pre-war Warsaw Zoo. Jan and Antonina Zabinski were Polish Christian zookeepers horrified by the Nazi who work to extinguish the lives of all in power, teachers, priests, along with the Jews. Throughout the war, Antonina records in her diary the destruction of Warsaw and their zoo. Of the aftermath of the Gestapo New Year’s Hunt, sponsored by Lutz Heck, the zoo director of the Berlin Zoo, of zoo animals (penned or caged), she wrote:

“In the cold blue evening light sunset was playing funeral bells
for our just buried animals.”

Director Heck “borrowed” his favorites for a project where he would breed back lost and extinct animals.

The Polish citizens were to be decimated along with the Jews. With the converting of the zoo to a pig farm the Zabinski found an official sanctioned purpose as the Nazis loved pork. There, they preserved some of the remaining animals, saved Jews, and continued resistance work. Jan, personally, brought out Jews from the ghetto using loosely guarded gate. For the safety of the cell, resistors were known by a code name—Jan’s was Francis from Francis of Assisi. Hidden people had animal names and pet animals, humans. The villa cryptic name was “The House Under a Crazy Star”.

Where to hide the Guests, Jan and Antonina hide the Jews in their villa—in plain sight. They orchestrated visits from family and friends to conceal the Jews-- Jews who were awaiting forged papers and a place outside the ghetto. Others were hidden in the empty zoo cages. Jan did even more; he buried an ammo depot near a German warehouse. He was an officer in the Polish resistance. Through his connections as the zoo director and naturalist he sought to save what he could. When Dr. Szymon Tenebaum was moved into the Warsaw Ghetto, Jan stored his mammoth beetle collection (half-million plus specimens--a collection still in existence today). Even their son was involved. He carried food to the Guests in the animal cages. Being a naturalist, Ackerman marvelously describes specimens from his collection.

Over the years of German occupation, the Zabinskis, saved over 300 people. With Germans and Poles almost continuously around their home, they never stopped. Ackerman weaves in local happenings, natural history, and animal behavior as well as Naturalist Diane Ackerman begins with a lovely description of the pre-war Warsaw Zoo. Jan and Antonina Zabinski were Polish Christian zookeepers horrified by the Nazi who work to extinguish the lives of all in power, teachers, priests, along with the Jews. Throughout the war, Antonina records in her diary the destruction of Warsaw and their zoo. Of the aftermath of the Gestapo New Year’s Hunt, sponsored by Lutz Heck, the zoo director of the Berlin Zoo, of zoo animals (penned or caged), she wrote:

“In the cold blue evening light sunset was playing funeral bells for our just buried animals.”

Heck director “borrowed” his favorites for a project where he would breed back lost and extinct animals.

The Polish citizens were to be decimated along with the Jews. With the converting of the zoo to a pig farm the Zabinski found an official sanctioned purpose as the Nazis loved pork. Thus, they preserved some of the remaining animals, saved over three hundred Jews, and continued resistance work. For the safety of the cell, resistors were known by a code name—Jan’s was Francis from Francis of Assisi. Hidden people had animal names and pet animals, humans. The villa cryptic name was “The House Under a Crazy Star”.

Where to hide the Guests, Jan and Antonina hide the Jews in their villa—in plain sight. They orchestrated visits from family and friends to conceal the Jews-- Jews who were awaiting forged papers and a place outside the ghetto. Others were hidden in the empty zoo cages. Jan did even more; he buried an ammo depot near a German warehouse. He was an officer in the Polish resistance. Through his connections as the zoo director and naturalist he sought to save what he could. When Dr. Szymon Tenebaum was moved into the Warsaw Ghetto, Jan stored his mammoth beetle collection (half-million plus specimens). Being a naturalist, Ackerman marvelously describes specimens from his collection.

Over the years of German occupation, the Zabinskis, saved over 300 people. With Germans and Poles almost continuously around their home, they never stopped. Ackerman weaves in local happenings, natural history, and animal behavior as she presents a couple who heroism has fallen through the cracks. One must marvel at what they accomplished. Antonina's journaling showed how they faced death without becoming bitter. After the war, Guests called the microcosm of safety the Zabinskis created an Ark. One is in awe of two people who "were just doing their duty".

First person narrative, richly detailed, biography, autobiography, journalistic, intricately plotted, sobering, and strong sense of place.

Continents book--Europe
Award winner

A Train in Winter / Caroline Moorehead 374 p.

Women, who were teachers, students, chemists, singers, all kinds of women from 15 to 60 years old, put their life on the line and did what they could to resist Nazi Germany when France was occupied. Most paid for their courage with their lives. Caroline Moorehead gives the account of 230 women captured by the Gestapo and imprisoned first in a fort outside Paris, then on the only train sent with women out France to German concentration camps. This is their story, the women of Le Convoi des 3100. These women formed strong bonds of friendship. They worked hard to keep each other alive in Auschwitz-Birkenau, and in Ravensbruck. They had each other's back. They clung to each other to survive the savage treatment, shoddy living conditions, little food, abominable working conditions, rampant disease. That 42 survived is a testimony to their strong characters, their friendship and their continuous acts of courage in face of unbelievable acts of debauchery, cruelty, brutality. Moorehead continues their story as the few returned home.
Not an easy read. What makes this memorable is the care these women took of each other. How they hid the sickly members of their group, shared their meager rations equally, and how they kept their spirits up during their 3 years in prison.

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