In “The Zookeeper’s Wife,” Diane Ackerman describes the plight of Warsaw Jews during World War II and the daring of some Polish Catholics who risked their lives trying to help them. The book contains much information about this sad and brutal era in history. Her book covers the years 1935 through 1945. Antonina’s husband Jan Zabinski was Director of The Warsaw Zoo. She and Jan offered vacant zoo enclosures as safe shelter for Jews trying to escape the Nazis. Antonina and her husband helped more than three hundred Jews escape.

The Warsaw Zoo, before the war, was one of the more advanced zoos in Europe. It provided interesting and natural-looking enclosures for the animals, some of them very rare specimens. When the Nazis attacked Poland, the zoo came under bombardment along with the rest of Warsaw. With the zoo in ruin and most of the animals dead or escaped, Antonina and Jan then offered the zoo grounds to victims trying to escape the Nazi purge of the Warsaw Ghetto.

The highly respected Jewish entomologist Dr. Szymon Tannenbaum lived in the Warsaw Ghetto. He had a famous collection of about five hundred thousand beetles pinned inside four hundred glass-covered boxes. Ackerman, herself well-versed in biology, adds an informative description of the collection. The Zabinskis manage to salvage about half of the boxes, which are now on display in the State Zoological Museum located about one hour’s drive north of Warsaw.

A little-known fact about the Nazi racial program is that it extended to animals as well as humans. The Nazis were interested in breeding back the original extinct species of European wild cattle, Aurochen, the largest land animal in Europe, the European wild horse, Tarpan, and the European forest bison (Bison, bison, bonasus). These animals were depicted in cave paintings by early tribes in Europe. The last known wild specimen became extinct in 1627.

“The Zookeeper’s Wife” contains a fascinating wealth of information about a sad and brutal era in human history and also highlights bold and heroic deeds by decent people caught in events beyond their control.