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A War Story: A true story?as powerful as Schindler's List?in which the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands.
W. W. Norton
September 2007
On Sale: September 4, 2007
288 pages
ISBN: 0393061728
EAN: 9780393061727
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction | Historical
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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