Jan Żabiński

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Jan Żabiński
Poland
NationalityPolish
Occupation(s)Educator, scientist, director of Warsaw Zoo
Known forHolocaust rescue
Awards
Righteous
Among the Nations
By country

Jan Żabiński (pronounced

1939–1945.[3] A street in Warsaw is named after him.[4]

Jan and his wife Antonina and their son Ryszard used their personal villa and the zoo itself to shelter hundreds of displaced Jews. Additionally, Jan fought during the Warsaw Uprising, was subsequently injured and became a prisoner of war. After his liberation Żabiński became a member of the State Commission for the Preservation of Nature (Państwowa Rada Ochrony Przyrody). Jan Żabiński authored approximately 60 popular science books.[3] His wife Antonina authored several children’s books written from the perspective of animals.[5]

Life

Jan Żabiński was born in Warsaw, the son of

Polish Army in 1919 and took part in the Polish–Soviet War of 1920, for which he was awarded his first Cross of Valour.[6]

Jan Żabiński with a lion, unknown date

In the reconstituted

sovereign Poland of the interwar period, Żabiński became an agricultural engineer with the Doctoral Degree in Zoology.[6] He was employed at the Institute of Zoology and Physiology of Animals of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW),[4] and met Antonina Erdman, his future wife there.[6] He was the co-founder of the Warsaw Zoo, and served as its director for a decade from 1929 until the German invasion of Poland in 1939.[4] He also taught geography at the private Kreczmar Secondary (pl). In 1937 Żabiński supervised the birth of "Tuzinka", the 12th elephant ever born in captivity.[6] After the liberation of Poland in 1945, he soon resumed his position of the Warsaw Zoo director, and served there until March 1951.[6] For his Holocaust rescue, he was posthumously awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta with the Star, by President Lech Kaczyński in 2008. His wife Antonina was also awarded the Commander's Cross.[6]

Polish underground activities

Further information: The Holocaust in Poland

Following the

entomologist Szymon Tenenbaum (who died in the Ghetto), as well as numerous others; most of whom survived the Holocaust and nominated him for the Righteous Award years later.[6][9]

During the German air assault on Warsaw in September 1939, many animal enclosures had been emptied and the zoo specimens taken elsewhere. The Żabińskis decided to utilize the clean pens, cages, and stalls as the hiding places for fleeing Jews.

Żegota: Council to Aid Jews.[8]

Tomb of the Żabiński family at the historical Powązki Cemetery, Warsaw

An active member of the

Polish underground resistance movement Armia Krajowa (the Home Army) in the rank of lieutenant, Żabiński participated in the Warsaw Polish Uprising in August and September 1944. Upon its suppression, he was taken as a prisoner to camps in Germany. His wife continued their work, looking after the needs of some of the Jews left behind in the ruins of the city.[7]

Legacy

For this Jan and his wife received the

Righteous Among the Nations award in 1965. On October 30, 1968, a tree planting ceremony was held at Yad Vashem honoring them.[10][11]

In 2007, an American poet and writer Diane Ackerman published The Zookeeper's Wife, a book about the Żabiński family's wartime activities that draws upon Antonina Żabińska's diary. The Polish film director Maciej Dejczer announced in 2008 that he had plans for a film about Żabiński's wartime activities.[12]

A

war drama about the Żabiński couple based on the book by Ackerman, The Zookeeper's Wife, was filmed in 2015 and released on March 31, 2017, with American actress Jessica Chastain portraying Antonina and Belgian actor Johan Heldenbergh cast as Jan.[13]

References

  1. OCLC 799305388
    .
  2. ^ "Hiding in Zoo Cages: Jan & Antonina Zabinski, Poland". Yad Vashem Remembrance Authority. Retrieved 2017-05-12.
  3. ^ a b "Żabiński Jan". Internetowa encyklopedia PWN. 2018. Archived from the original on 2011-07-18. Retrieved 2006-11-18.
  4. ^ a b c Ulice Twojego Miasta (2015). "Ulica Żabińskiego Jana, Ursynów, Osiedle Natolin". The Streets of Your Hometown: Warsaw.
  5. ^ Hoffman, Barbara (25 March 2017). "How a zookeeper's hero wife saved hundreds of Jews from the Nazis". New York Post. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Polish Press Agency, PAP (March 2017). "Jan Żabiński, a man remembered by Hollywood" [Jan Żabiński - człowiek, o którego upomniało się Hollywood]. Dzieje.pl.
  7. ^ a b Yad Vashem (2010). "Jan and Antonina Zabinski, Poland". The Righteous Among the Nations. Archived from the original on 2010-11-24.
  8. ^ a b c Sprawiedliwi.org (2018). "Żabiński Family. History of Rescue" [Rodzina Żabińskich, Historia pomocy]. Warsaw: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
  9. ^ Polscy Sprawiedliwi (2010-11-18). "Jan Żabiński (1897–1977) and Antonina Żabińska (1908–1971)". POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw. Archived from the original on 2010-11-18.
  10. ^ "Hiding in Zoo Cages: Jan & Antonina Zabinski, Poland". Yad Vashem Remembrance Authority. Retrieved 2017-05-12.
  11. ^ "Żabiński Jan & Żabińska Antonina (Erdman)". The Righteous Among The Nations Database. Yad Vashem. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  12. ^ Polscy reżyserzy planują filmy o II Wojnie Światowej - Wiadomość - FILMWEB.pl
  13. ^ Chastain will play Archived 2016-04-26 at the Wayback Machine accessed 12-26-2015

External links

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