The Zookeeper's Wife Essay

822 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Lasting effects of the Holocaust on survivors

The Zookeeper’s Wife tells the story of Jan and Antonina, who owned a zoo during WWII. During this time the couple saved Jews from being persecuted by the Nazis. They hid Jews in the rubble of cages and empty buildings, which were left after the many bombings in Warsaw. Although they had many close calls with Nazis they miraculously kept the ordeal a secret with the help of a few friends. Antonina, which the story revolves around, had a strange and mysterious gift which helped her understand animals feelings, this power in the end seemed to work on humans to and helped her out of many situations. The first few chapters of the book show how life was before the war, peaceful and almost dreamlike in the way that they lived among the animals. …show more content…

In the few times Jan is around all he ever does is criticize Antonina, making her feel useless. Although things start to look up again when when he does something he’s never done before, compliment her in public. Anthonina shows her resolve when it comes to sweet talking Nazi soldiers and turning them away. Working with Żegota the zookeepers acquire fake identities for the refugees to smuggle them to safety. In 1943 Ryś is hospitalized with pneumonia, and as if this didn’t add enough stress the director for Parks and Gardens orders Jan to be fired. But the Polish Vice-President doesn’t agree with this and transfers Jan to the Pedagogic Museum, so that he won’t lose his house and income. Shortly after Antonina gives birth to her daughter Teresa. The time for a Polish uprising is now and Jan leaves to fight. Antonina is on edge but somehow defends the zoo. During the uprising Antonina, Ryś, and Teresa are forced to live in an abandoned schoolhouse for a while. Anthonina worries about whether Jan is alive or not, and despite being shot in the neck he survives. Finally when the Germans flee Poland in 1945, everyone returns to the zoo and the refugees can be set free. After the war everything returns to the way it was before, almost, and the zookeepers live in

Show More
Related

  • Chapter Summary of I Have Lived a Thousand Years, Growing Up in the Holocaust by Livia Bitton-Jackson

    3706 Words  | 8 Pages

    Elli talks about daily life in her neighborhood. Her mother does not show any compassion for her. When Elli complains of this, her mother brings up excuses that are unconvincing. Elli believes her mother does not care for her and that her brother is the favorite. Hilter’s reoccurring radio broadcast give nightmares to Elli, whos family is Jewish. The nights when the Hungarian military police would come and stir trouble did not provide anymore comfort for Elli. One night, her brother, Bubi, comes home with news that Germany invaded Budapest, the town where he goes to school. But the next morning, there is no news in the headlines. The father sends him back to school. He learns the next day that a neighbor’s son who goes to school with Bubi has said the same. The day after, the newspapers scream the news of the invasion. Bubi arrives home, and the terror begins.

    Read More

  • Alicia My Story, Book Summary

    1341 Words  | 3 Pages

    They stayed here during the winter while Alicia still searched for food, in the process, making many friends. News came one day that the Germans were beginning to fall back from the Russian fronts and Germany’s grip on the Jews in Poland was weakening. This news made Alicia and her mother move away from the old man who helped them.

    Read More

  • Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God and Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye

    1018 Words  | 3 Pages

     After a year of pampering, Logan becomes demanding and rude, he went as far to try to force Janie to do farm work. It was when this happened that Janie decided to take a stand and run away with Joe. At this time, Janie appears to have found a part of her voice and strong will. In a way, she gains a sense of independence and realizes she has the power to walk away from an unhealthy situation and does not have to be a slave to her own husband. After moving to Eatonville and marrying Joe, Janie discovers that people are not always who they seem to be.

    Read More

  • Sonya Hartnett's The Midnight Zoo

    671 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Every war is everyone’s war”... war will bring out the worst in even the strongest and kindest people. The book tells about how ones greed for something can destroy everything for both people and animals leaving them broken beyond repair, leaving them only with questions… Will they ever see their family again? Will they ever experience what it’s like to

    Read More

  • Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

    681 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lina Vilkas is a fifteen year old girl who is the protagonist of this story. She was taken, by the NKVD, from her house with her mother and brother to exile. Later in the story she meets Andrius and falls in love with him. She marries him after the war while moving from place to place. Andrius uses his misfortune as a fortune to help others. He takes care of Lina and her family as best he can. Nikolai Kretzsky is a young NKVD officer who helps Lina and her mother even after Lina insulted him. Mr Stalas is a Jew who is deported with the other people. He wanted to die with dignity. He is often referred to as The Bald Man. He confesses that he was liable for the deportation. Janina is a starry-eyed young girl who likes to help others and to talk to her "dead" doll. When few selected people are brought to the North Pole for more suffering, dozens of people die from cholera and pneumonia. Lina however, survives and manages to save Jonas and Janina with the help of Nikolai Kretzsky.

    Read More

  • The Zookeeper's Wife Sparknotes

    1086 Words  | 3 Pages

    When they deem it safe to return, they are shocked to find that their precious animals have been killed by the bombings and the zoo is torn apart. Antonina cannot keep Ryszard safe at the zoo, so she takes him to a series of secret places throughout the city that are safe and unknown to the Germans. Antonina is surprised at the number of generous people she finds that are willing to provide shelter and the only food they have to help keep her and her son alive. Jan is now more than ever determined to join and help the Underground Polish Resistance. The Underground Polish Resistance is a group whose main goal is to hide and help keep alive, not only Jews but any group of people the Germans do not see fit to live anymore. The Żabiński’s receive some unusual help from Lutz Heck, a German zookeeper who is interested in keeping the main bloodlines of Poland’s animals alive. He suggests the Żabiński’s send over any of their unique Poland animals to his zoo, to keep them safe until the end of the war. Although the Żabiński’s do not trust Heck they both agree that loaning their animals to him until the end of the war is the safest option for the animals and will allow them to keep more people safe in their

    Read More

  • Sarah's Key Social Injustice Quotes

    1692 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sarah and her mother are sought out by the French Police after an order goes out to arrest all French Jews. When Sarah’s little brother starts to feel the pressures of social injustice, he turns to his sister for guidance. Michel did not want to go with the French Police, so he asks Sarah to help him hide in their secret cupboard. Sarah does this because she loves Michel and does not want him to be discriminated against. Sarah, her mother, and her father get arrested for being Jewish and are taken to a concentration camp just outside their hometown. Sarah thinks Michel, her beloved brother, will be safe. She says, “Yes, he’d be safe there. She was sure of it. The girl murmured his name and laid her palm flat on the wooden panel. I’ll come back for you later. I promise” (Rosnay 9). During this time of inequality, where the French were removing Sarah and her mother just because they were Jewish, Sarah’s brother asked her for help. Sarah promised her brother she would be back for him and helped him escape his impending arrest. Sarah’s brother believed her because he looks up to her and loves her. As the story continues, when Sarah falls ill and is in pain, she also turns to her father for comfort, “at one point she had been sick, bringing up bile, moaning in pain. She had felt her father’s hand upon her, comforting her” (Rosnay 55).

    Read More

  • Janie’s Courageous Voice in Their Eyes Were Watching God

    1409 Words  | 3 Pages

    Janie’s first attempt at love does not turn out quite like she hopes. Her grandmother forces her into marrying Logan Killicks. As the year passes, Janie grows unhappy and miserable. By pure fate, Janie meets Joe Starks and immediately lusts after him. With the knowledge of being wrong and expecting to be ridiculed, she leaves Logan and runs off with Joe to start a new marriage. This is the first time that Janie does what she wants in her search of happiness: “Even if Joe was not waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good…From now on until death she was going to have flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything” (32). Janie’s new outlook on life, although somewhat shadowed by blind love, will keep her satisfied momentarily, but soon she will return to the loneliness she is running from.

    Read More

  • Stripes Will Survive Essay On Zoos

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    Have you ever seen an animal sitting in a cage all alone with nothing to do. Well, zoos are trying to change that fact. They will allow the animals to live in an environment that is like their home. Many people don't realize this, but zoo are keeping and breeding these animals because they would not survive in the wild alone. In the three passages, ¨The Stripes Will Survive,¨ ¨The Zood Go Wild from No More Dodos,¨ ¨Our Beautiful Macaws and Why They Need Enrichment.¨ All of these articles present one claim, that is that the role of zoos is no longer to keep animal, but to protect them.

    Read More

  • Their Eyes Were Watching Who?

    2003 Words  | 5 Pages

    Instead, Janie becomes the center of attention and her hopes become the main focus. By doing this, the focus of the story changes making Janie the only focus and the inclusion of the other characters never reaches closure, making their expectati... ... middle of paper ... ... an Diego, 1 Apr. 2005. Web.

    Read More

  • Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry

    1284 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mrs.Johansen is Annemarie’s mother, she is a very strong, determined, and smart woman “Friends will take care of them. thats what friends do. ”she helps the roses by hiding ellen and pretending that she is their daughter. Mr. Johansen is Annemarie’s father, he is the same as her mother but more courageous and brave. ” we don’t know where the germans are taking the jews and we dont know what that means we only know that its is wrong, and it dangerous and we must help”.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Argumentation In The Reality Of Zoos By Michelle Carr

    1034 Words  | 3 Pages

    Michelle Carr uses the rhetorical mode of argumentation for the purpose of persuasion in her article, “The Reality of Zoos.” Carr focuses on the issue of the imprisonment and maltreatment of zoo animals in her article. She effectively presents her points by using the persuasive methods of pathos and logos. Carr establishes an emotional connection with the reader by recalling an occasion she noticed how unhappy zoo animals were during a childhood memory. Carr also uses logic and reasoning; she appeals to the reader by using facts and figures about the suffering zoo animals experience, for instance, the animals developing “zoochosis” and the animals being forcibly inseminated for money-making purposes. By establishing an emotional connection

    Read More

  • Sophie's Choice

    1575 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sophie was a Polish women and a survivor of Auschwitz, a concentration camp established in Germany during the Holocaust in the early 1940s. In the novel we learn about her through her telling of her experiences, for instance, the murder of her husband and her father. We also come to learn of the dreadful decision she was faced with upon entering the concentration camp, where she was instructed to choose which one of her two children would be allowed to live. She chose her son. Later we learn of her short lived experience as a stenographer for a man by the name of Rudolph Hoss, the Commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp. During her time there, Sophie attempted to seduce Hoss in an attempt to have her son transferred to the Lebensborn program so that he may have been raised as a German child. Sophie's attempt was unsuccessful and she was returned back to t...

    Read More

  • A Night Divided Characters

    672 Words  | 2 Pages

    Her father and brother Dominic are in the west, they left the night before the wall came up to find a safe way to leave but end up without the rest of their family. The resolution is that in the end they meet again by both tunneling under the wall too get to each other. The second conflict in this story is that while Fritz and Greta are trying to get to the rest of their family they have to make up excuses and lie to the Grenzers so that they don’t get caught if they do they could go to jail or die and never get to their family. They struggle with this a lot throughout the story while tunneling and are very scared for their lives but they are determined to get the

    Read More

  • Short Story About A Foster Care Child

    636 Words  | 2 Pages

    The fall of ’99 was the year of all years; Janine was in her last year of law school at Yale, and her adoptive mother, Nancy, had just phoned telling her of their family visit in the fall. Just then out of the blue she hears a knock at the door.

    Read More

More about The Zookeeper's Wife Essay

Open Document