First published 2008
Jan and Antonina Zabinski run the Warsaw Zoo when Nazi bombs destroy their animal enclosures in 1939. The couple transforms their devastated zoo into a secret sanctuary, hiding over three hundred Jewish refugees in the empty cages where lions and elephants once lived. Antonina assigns animal code names to their human guests while giving proper names to the remaining zoo animals, creating a surreal world of reversed identities. The Zabinskis operate under the code name "The House Under a Crazy Star" as they navigate the deadly risks of their rescue operation. Diane Ackerman reconstructs this remarkable true story through meticulous research, bringing Antonina's perspective to life while exploring the twisted ideologies that drove Nazi persecution. The narrative weaves together the daily dangers of wartime resistance with intimate portraits of courage under impossible circumstances.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, world-war-ii, jewish
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, resistance
Setting: Poland, Warsaw
Period: 1939
384 pages · ebook · W. W. Norton Company
Content warnings: war