The Zookeeper's Wife Sparknotes

In Diane Ackerman’s book The Zookeeper’s Wife, the main characters, Jan and Antonina Żabiński, were zookeepers in Warsaw, Poland. Jan and Antonina Żabiński met at the College of Agriculture, where they bonded over their love for animals. A year later they are married and have a son named Ryszard which means lynx in Polish. After about eight years, the Żabiński’s dream of creating a natural habitat zoo has almost been accomplished. Antonina has a sixth sense for animals’ health, and uses it to cure sick animals until eventually they become healthy enough that they can live at the zoo. Although Jan and Antonina’s dreams seem to be coming true, Germany and the rest of Europe begin to have tumult. Antonina, trying to keep her son away from the

horrors of the world for as long as possible, decides that every summer Ryszard and a few sick animals will all go along with her to the cottage. As the war begins to spread around their zoo and home, the Żabiński’s flee to the countryside.

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

Zoo. To their absolute horror, Lutz Heck takes any animals he doesn’t see fit as Poland bloodlines and organizes a shooting game for the German officers, who then later eat the exotic animals for dinner. Despite his false promises, Lutz Heck allows the Żabiński’s to keep their zoo open if they use it as a pig farm to feed the German soldiers. They of course agree to it because not only will it be safer for Ryszard, but also for the Jews they are secretly hiding for the Underground Polish Resistance.
World War II was a time countries turned on their allies and people began to have doubts in their countries military strengths.

Everyone was looking over their shoulder for ground attacks or looking at the sky preparing themselves for surprise bombings. In her book, Ackerman says “Suffering took hold of me like a magic spell abolishing all differences between friends and strangers.” (Ackerman). World War II was a time of hiding in cramped spaces and giving the weakest your last bite and giving up the shirt on your back, it was a time when people didn’t care if they were best friends or strangers before the war because they were all trying to survive. It didn’t matter whether someone was a shop owner or the mayor, because nobody had any power to do anything to help one another. Everyone was an equal while the war was in motion and therefore everyone helped everyone whether they were friends or not. Ackerman says “Germany's crime is the greatest crime the world has ever known, because it is not on the scale of History: it is on the scale of evolution.” (Ackerman), Nazi Germany wasn’t just out to rule all of Europe. They were out to create a whole new perfect population of purely blue-eyed blondes. Over 60 million people were killed during the war, which was about 3% of the world population in 1939. “Every day our life was full of thoughts of the horrible present, and even our own death.” (Ackerman). There was not a day that went by that people were not scared. During this time

period, people got used to living constantly in fear. Reading this book really opened my eyes to the horrors of war and the struggles people faced. It gave me a better understanding of history through the lens of the zookeeper’s wife.
I think Antonina Żabiński is extremely motivated. She has many things keeping her motivated, including her son, the animals, and the Jews. Ryszard definitely keeps Antonina motivated because she feels the need to keep him safe and sheltered from the war so that he can grow up like a normal boy. She does this by taking him to the cottage during the summers as the war begins to get more intense around their home. Antonina is also careful about her hiding places because she knows that if she is not smart about them, there is a possibility that the Nazi Germans will find them. The animals have a special place in Antonina’s heart. Antonina feels as though she is the animals’ guardian in a way because without her they will starve or be killed in the war. Antonina is very empathic, so when the Jews are being hunted down and put in concentration camps, Antonina is horrified and has enough bravery to offer them a safe hiding place once they have escaped despite the dangers. If the Nazi German soldiers were to ever find out, she would be killed on the spot. In a way, Antonina is a hero. She stands up for multiple people and animals, and puts herself in dangerous situations so that the people she loves and cares about are safe and fed.
I think that what Antonina does for her son, the animals and the Jews is amazing. She is extremely selfless and has high morals. Antonina does not judge people based on their religion or color, she understands that people are all the same underneath and that everyone or anything with a beating heart deserves freedom of religion and has a right to live.