When the Nazis arrive, they seem to have the same disregard for some of the animals, shooting them at will, as they do with Jews. Director Niki Caro and her crew worked extremely hard to create a world where both animals and human beings are confined for the amusement of others.īoth people and animals were in an alien environment - the only difference was that at least at first the animals were well cared for, while the Jews simply were being held for the slaughter.Ĭaro uses the cages in the zoo and in the ghetto to make her point. The visual contrast between a zoo that kept animals barred inside and a ghetto, just down the road, where Jews were kept behind barbed wire and walls, is powerful. What took place at the zoo during the war years provides the framework for what is an incredible story of two heroes, Righteous Among the Nations, who risked everything to save Jewish lives. The Zabinskis soon realized that their zoo grounds now could provide refuge for another species in danger of extinction - their Jewish friends and neighbors. Many of its animals were killed in the bombings. When Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany in 1939, the zoo suffered extensive damage and was forced to close. Get The Jewish Standard Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories Working by his side, his wife, Antonina, an author of children’s books about animals, helped to care for the animals and run the zoo.
Jan Zabinski was highly regarded not only for the zoo he oversaw, but for the popular books about biology and animal behavior that he wrote.
It also was home to one of Europe’s finest zoos Dr. In the 1930s, Warsaw was a center of Jewish life, home to more than 350,000 Jews, who made up about 30 percent of the city’s total population.
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