The Zookeeper's Wife (4 Stars)

True Stories #11

Name: Antonina Zabinska

Lived:18 July 1908 – 19 March 1971

Film dates: 1939 to 1946

Film made in 2017

It's amazing that after all these years it's still possible to make new films about the heroism of people who risked their lives to protect Jews from the Nazis. They're stories that never cease to fascinate modern audiences. Each story has its own variations.

What's even more amazing is that there are still people who deny that Hitler killed millions of Jews. They claim that the Holocaust is Jewish propaganda. I had a personal friend in Birmingham who used to post videos on Facebook about scholars who have found new evidence that the Holocaust never happened. Maybe she still does. I don't know, because I unfriended her. She's the only person I've ever unfriended. I have a principle that I don't unfriend people for disagreements on politics, but she pushed me too far. One person in 12 years of using Facebook. That's not too bad.

Anti-Semitism is currently at its strongest since the end of World War Two, especially among left-wing thinkers. The modern way to excuse anti-Semitism is to say "I'm not anti-Semitic, I'm anti-Zionist". It's a subtle difference. Being anti-Semitic means you want to kill (or otherwise harm) Jews. Being anti-Zionist means you support those who want to kill the Jews who live in Israel. Britain recently had a leader of the opposition party who attended meetings with Jew-killers. If he'd been voted into power, it would have started a new Dark Age in Britain.

Now let me say a few words about the film itself. Not many people know Antonina Zabinska, apart from those who've seen this film. She was the wife of Jan Zabinska, the owner of the Warsaw Zoo from 1929 to 1939. When Germany invaded in 1939 they were ordered to close the zoo. All the animals should have been slaughtered for food, but a senior SS officer in Warsaw, Lutz Heck, was the director of the Berlin Zoo. He offered to take some of the animals to be kept in the Berlin Zoo until the Warsaw Zoo re-opened.

Jan and Antonina wanted to hold on to the zoo by any means possible. They offered to turn the zoo grounds into a pig farm to supply meat for the German soldiers. Lutz agreed to this, as long as he could also use the former zoo for a personal project. He wanted to breed aurochs. Have you ever seen an aurochs? Of course not. They're a European form of bison that's been extinct since the 17th Century. Lutz thought that through selective breeding he could bring them back to life.

What was most important to Jan and Antonina was to save their Jewish friends. Jan was allowed to enter the Warsaw Ghetto to collect scraps to feed the pigs. He smuggled Jews out of the Ghetto, mostly children, but also a few adults. His pig farm was used as a halfway house. Most of the Jews were kept in the underground animal rooms for a few days, until they received fake passports and were able to travel. Some of them preferred to stay.

In 1944 Jan was shot while participating in an armed uprising against the Germans. He was considered dead, so no more Jews could be rescued. Antonina continued to take care of the Jews remaining in the pig farm. There's a certain irony in pigs, an unclean animal for Jews, to be used to save them. Jan surprised everyone by returning home in 1946. The zoo was rebuilt. He continued as the zoo director until 1951. The Warsaw Zoo is still open today.

In the film we see Antonina with her two children, Teresa and Rys.

They're still alive today. It must have been emotional to see their early life being filmed.

Arguably, the film's main hero is Jan Zabinska. He's the one who drives in and out of the ghetto, smuggling Jews in his truck, while his wife sits at home waiting. I see them as a team. They both did their part. The only problems they had were with Antonina's relationship with Lutz Heck. She flirted with him to distract him from suspicious noises in her house. She even kissed him. Jan didn't understand this. He was jealous. Men are like that. Jan didn't understand that Antonina had no interest in Lutz. She was making sacrifices to save Jews.

Success Rate:  - 0.7

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de