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Diane Ackerman

The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story Paperback – September 17, 2008

by Diane Ackerman (Author)

3.9 8,478 ratings

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The New York Times bestseller now a major motion picture starring Jessica Chastain.

A true story in which the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands.

After their zoo was bombed, Polish zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski managed to save over three hundred people from the Nazis by hiding refugees in the empty animal cages. With animal names for these "guests," and human names for the animals, it's no wonder that the zoo's code name became "The House Under a Crazy Star." Best-selling naturalist and acclaimed storyteller Diane Ackerman combines extensive research and an exuberant writing style to re-create this fascinating, true-life story―sharing Antonina's life as "the zookeeper's wife," while examining the disturbing obsessions at the core of Nazism. Winner of the 2008 Orion Award. 8 pages of illustrations

Print length

384 pages
Language

English
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

September 17, 2008
Dimensions

5.5 x 1 x 8.3 inches
ISBN-10

039333306X
ISBN-13

978-0393333060
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"It is no stretch to say that this is the book Ackerman was meant to write."
― Los Angeles Times

"Diane Ackerman has surpassed even herself in her latest book, which is alternatingly funny, moving, and terrifying. This powerful thriller would be a great novel--except that it is true."
― Jared Diamond

About the Author

Diane Ackerman has been the finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction in addition to many other awards and recognitions for her work, which include the best-selling The Zookeeper's Wife and A Natural History of the Senses. She lives in Ithaca, New York.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (September 17, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 039333306X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393333060
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1 x 8.3 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #46,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #98 in Jewish Holocaust History
- #360 in European History (Books)
- #463 in World War II History (Books)

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3.9 8,478 ratings

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Diane Ackerman

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Diane Ackerman is the author of two dozen highly-acclaimed works of poetry and nonfiction, including the bestsellers "The Zookeeper's Wife" and "A Natural History of the Senses," and the Pulitzer Prize Finalist, "One Hundred Names for Love."

In her most recent book, "The Human Age: the World Shaped by Us," she confronts the unprecedented fact that the human race is now the single dominant force of change on the whole planet. Humans have "subdued 75 percent of the land surface, concocted a wizardry of industrial and medical marvels, strung lights all across the darkness." Ackerman takes us on an exciting journey to understand this bewildering new reality, introducing us to many of the inspiring people and ideas now creating, and perhaps saving, our future

A note from the author: "I find that writing each book becomes a mystery trip, one filled with mental (and sometimes physical) adventures. The world revealing itself, human nature revealing itself, is seductive and startling, and that's always been fascinating enough to send words down my spine. Please join me on my travels. I'd enjoy the company."

Contact me or follow my posts here: www.dianeackerman.com, @dianesackerman, www.facebook.com/dianeackerman.author

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3.9 out of 5

8,478 global ratings

5 star		42%
4 star		27%
3 star		19%
2 star		7%
1 star		4%

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caro_in_atx

Interesting Yet Dull

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 8, 2022

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Very interesting story, although some of it (e.g. Jewish children being rounded up for concentration camps, zoo animals being shot by Nazis, horrors of life in the Warsaw ghetto) is extremely painful to read. It centers on a Gentile Polish family who owned a zoo before the Nazis took or killed its animals and appropriated its grounds for other purposes takes in numerous Jews and others targeted by the Nazis. Intriguing, right? Well, the way it’s written is kind of unnecessarily flowery and dull at the same time. Like, it will go on for pages about a pet hamster or pig they had, or Polish superstitions that don’t really relate to the topics at hand. I have 50-some-odd pages to go and am looking forward to being done with it.

5 people found this helpful

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T. Hyrkas

the Zabinskis took great risks to save hundreds of Jews during World War ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 6, 2016

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The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman is the historical narrative of Christian Polish zookeepers, Jan Zabinski, a trained zoologist and the director of the Warsaw zoo, and his wife, Antonina. Taken primarily from the memoirs, diaries, and autobiographical children’s books of Antonina, Ackerman has produced a book that squarely faces the horror of Hitler’s plans to destroy every aspect of Poland’s multi-faceted identity. Within this crucible of malevolence, the Zabinskis took great risks to save hundreds of Jews during World War II. The author chose to write about the Zabinskis to honor their great heroism during the Nazi regime in Poland “…when even handing a thirsty Jew a cup of water was punishable by death.” Although the action of the story is carried out primarily through Jan, the lens through which we view the action is Antonina’s.
Starting in 1931 the Zabinskis lived in a villa in Praga, just outside Warsaw, not far from the zoo. At their villa they kept a number of injured or orphaned zoo animals and allowed the creatures to roam freely about their residence. This was not simply a necessity due to the care that some of the animals required, it was a scientific approach for Jan. Ackerman records this comment by Jan: “It’s not enough to do research from a distance. It’s by living beside animals that you learn their behaviors and psychology.” As for Antonina, this was a lifestyle that she also relished. An “animal whisperer” before anyone heard of the term, Antonina had, according to her husband’s notes, had an “uncanny ability to calm unruly animals.”
From their home in Praga the Zabinskis could see the rooftops of the Old Town of Warsaw. Just outside the Old Town lay the large Jewish Quarter with a population of about 300,000 Jews, which, says Ackerman, was “the heartbeat of eastern European Jewish culture.” The Jews who lived in the Jewish Quarter maintained their own style of dress, culture, language and religion and many spoke no Polish, according to Ackerman.
Rumors of war were everywhere in Warsaw in the summer of 1939, and they proved to be prophetic. On September 1, Hitler invaded Poland. On September 7, forty-two year old Jan was formally ordered to join the Polish army at the front, and all civilians were directed to vacate the zoo at once. Antonina took their young son, Rys, and sought refuge where she could in Warsaw as the Germans began 1,150 bombing sorties over the city.
During the bombings, concerns about the animals eventually caused Antonina and a few keepers to go to the zoo to assess the damage, which they found to be extensive. Many animals were killed and buildings were destroyed by bullets, bombs and fire. Some animals escaped and entered the Old Town while Warsaw was in flames. “People brave enough to stand by their windows…watched a biblical hallucination unfolding as the zoo emptied into Warsaw streets,” writes Ackerman.
Poland soon surrendered to Hitler and what was left of Jan’s military contingent left the front to return to their homes. In an astonishing story that verges on the miraculous, Jan was reunited with Antonina and Rys at his sister’s apartment in Warsaw. After a brief stay in the city the little family walked back to their damaged villa to resume caring for the zoo and its remaining animals.
Ackerman writes that “Under the Third Reich, animals became noble, mythic, almost angelic — including humans of course, but not Slavs, Gypsies, Catholics or Jews.” Laws were soon in place for the elimination of these “sub-human” specimens. As Hitler’s plans for the destruction of Poland and its people unfolded, the liquidation of the Warsaw zoo also became a reality. Though devastated by the Reich’s decision, Jan saw an opportunity and convinced director Lutz Heck, a powerful Nazi leader and a zoologist, to use the old zoo buildings as a large pig farm. Ackerman records this: “According to testimony [Jan] gave to the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, by using the ruse of gathering scraps for feeding pigs, he hoped to ‘bring notes, bacon, and butter and carry messages for friends in the Ghetto.” This was only one of the ways that the Zabinskis helped the Jews during the war.
Other resistance activities included the incredible risk of hiding an ammunition dump for the Polish Home Army in the middle of the zoo. About this, Ackerman writes: “As Jan thought, it never occurred to the Germans that a Pole would be that gutsy, because they regarded Slavs as a fainthearted and stupid race fit only for physical labor.”
When it came to hiding refugees, the zoo was by no means the ideal location says Ackerman. “The villa stood close to Ratuszowa Street, right out in the open like a lighthouse, surrounded only by cages and habitats.” But the Zabinskis took in many “guests,” approximately three hundred, whom they hid either in the villa or on the zoo’s property as the refugees passed through to their final destinations.
Why did the Zabinskis take the tremendous risk of rescuing Jews during the war? Ackerman has this answer from an interview conducted with Jan by reporter Noah Kliger of the Israeli newspaper, Yediot Aharonot: “I only did my duty — if you can save somebody’s life, it’s your duty to try.”
I hope you find time to read A War Story: The Zookeeper’s Wife, by Diane Ackerman. That it can be seen as a modern type of the story of Noah’s ark adds an additional level of amazement. Jan and Antonina Zabinski were named by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations in 1965.

118 people found this helpful

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Michael Sholders

The Horror of the Holocaust From the Zoo

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 17, 2016

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World War 2 was ghastly in scope, horror and impact on so many persons that itdefies description. In Warsaw, the war saw some of the most ghastly events as the city was ravaged over and over by the Germans, the Russians, and the Allied troops. It was the scene of one of the most horrifying stories of the war: the creation of the ghetto; a holding place for Jews awaiting extermination in nearby concentration camps. Death, disease, torture, and inhumane treatment were daily occurrences. The war not only affected the Polish citizens, but it interrupted the bucolic life of the Warsaw zoo. The first spate of German occupation slaughtered many of the animals, but miraculously, the zookeepers and their families were allowed to remain within the confines of the zoo and were left relatively unharmed. Relatively by comparison to the ghastly events that were taking place in the ghetto, but still horrid. In this setting, the story chronicles the bravery and the solidarity of the Polish people as the zoo became a hiding place for the underground as well as a small beacon of hope for the other members of the community. The zookeepers were allowed entry and exit into the ghetto where they routinely smuggled food and provisions into the inhabitants, and planned daring escapes and rescues to some lucky individuals. The family survived, as did the zoo, although it was nearly decimated at the end of the war. Today the zoo thrives, strains of animals in the nearby Black Forest remain as vestiges of the heroic efforts given by the zookeepers and their family to save humans and animals. This book does not magnify the horror, but calmly demonstrates human compassion and ingenuity in monstrous times. A worthwhile read.

8 people found this helpful

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jan mangles

Never to be forgotten

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 5, 2013

Verified Purchase

It reminded me that humanity has learned very little from the past. Man is still capable of raw cruel depravity, we see and hear examples of it daily. However man is also capable of huge generosity of spirit, tenacity and bravery all evident in this book.

Phoebe

It was more factual rather than a storyline

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 14, 2018

Verified Purchase

It was a book for my book club

Danel P. Olson

Rivetting.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 22, 2015

Verified Purchase

The ending lets us down a bit and drags, but the real-life hiding of hunted Jews in the zoo is unforgettable.

brigidof maidstone

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 22, 2018

Verified Purchase

all ok

rebecca pike

book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 8, 2014

Verified Purchase

A good read if you are into" hitlers nazi's" and mans determination to survive against the odds.Very difficult to put down once you have started

One person found this helpful

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