52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 13

I am late writing this post. It has been hard to find time to write with everything I have going on in my life. I am also one book behind, so I will have to find time to read 2 books in the coming weeks.

The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman is a fascinating account of how one family contributed to the Polish Underground during World War 2. Jan and Antonina Zabinski smuggled hundreds of Jews to safety by hiding them in the empty cages of their zoo. I had no clue so many Polish people put their lives on the line, as part of the Underground resistance.

This book had a lot of great passages. It is written like a novel, but direct quotes are pulled from the diaries of Antonina and others that were in Poland at this time.

People brave enough to stand by their windows or unlucky enough to be outside, watched a biblical hallucination unfolding as the zoo emptied into Warsaw's streets.

With courage and ingenuity, the Polish Resistance would sabotage German equipment, derail trains, blow up bridges, print over 1,100 periodicals, make radio broadcasts, teach covert high schools and colleges (attended by 100,000 students), aid Jews in hiding, supply arms, make bombs, assassinate Gestapo agents, rescue prisoners, stage secret plays, publish books, lead feats of civil resistance, hold its own law courts, and run couriers to and from the London-based government-in-exile.

Hibernation time wasn't only for sleep, it was also when bears typically gave birth to cubs they suckled and nuzzled until spring, a time of ripeness. Antonina wondered if humans might use the same metaphor and picture the war days as a "sort of hibernation of the spirit, when ideas, knowledge, science, enthusiasm for work, understanding, and love - all accumulate inside, [where] nobody can take them from us."

"No where in the world are people so generally reckless of danger as in Warsaw. There is incredible vitality in Warsaw and an infectious spirit of daring. The pulse of life beats in an unbelievably rapid tempo... There is rhythm and romanticism in everything... the entire city works, tearing down ruins and building new houses and creating, clearing away and filling in. Warsaw started to dig out from its ruins the very moment the last Nazi trooper left its suburbs. It has been at it ever since, building, remodeling and restoring without waiting for plans, money or materials."

In all, around 300 people passed through the way station at the Warsaw Zoo, en route to the rest of their nomadic lives. Jan always felt... that the real heroine of this saga was his wife, Antonina. "She was afraid fo the possible consequences... she was terrified the Nazis would seek revenge against us and our young son, terrified of death, and yet she kept it to herself, and helped me [with my Underground activities] and never ever asked me to stop."

"Antonina was a housewife... she wasn't involved in politics or war, and was timid, and yet despite that, she played a major role in saving others and never once complained about the danger."