Summary, Analysis, and Review of Diane Ackerman's The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story

Summary

Please Note: This is a key takeaways and analysis of the book and not the original book.

Start Publishing Notes’ Summary, Analysis, and Review of Diane Ackerman’s The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story includes:

• Summary of the book
• A review
• Analysis and key takeaways
• A detailed “About the Author” section

Preview:

Diane Ackerman’s The Zookeeper’s Wife is the story of Antonina Zabinski, the wife of Jan, director of Warsaw’s zoo in the 1930s. When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, the zoo fell into disrepair, but Jan joined the Polish resistance, and he and Antonina saved 300 Jews by hiding them in their home and helping them escape Poland. The book makes extensive use of Antonina’s unpublished diaries.

Antonina’s parents had worked in Russia and had been executed during the 1917 Russian Revolution when their daughter was nine. Antonina was raised by her grandmother; she studied piano and then moved to Warsaw. She met Jan, who was 11 years older than her, while working as an archivist in Warsaw’s School of Agriculture. Jan became Warsaw zoo director in 1929, and the two married in 1931.