Antonina zabinski childhood

When the Nazis bombed Warsaw on Sept. But after the smoke cleared — and the Germans stole all the surviving animals they wanted — that hellish place became a sanctuary. When aiding a Jew in Poland was punishable by death, the Zabinskis saved of them. War happened to women and children and animals, also. Orphaned at 9, Antonina learned early on how to read people.

She painted, spoke several languages and was passionate about polka dots — and animals. After marrying Jan in , she reared orphaned lynx and lion cubs alongside their son, Rys, at their zoo-side home.

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Later, as Antonina helped Jan smuggle Jews out of the ghetto, she adopted them, too. That Antonina was blond and beautiful probably helped. But Heck was still a Nazi. To ingratiate himself with SS higher-ups, he gave them a private hunting party — inside the Warsaw Zoo. When the officers arrived that day, wielding pistols, Antonina grabbed her young child and ran indoors.

She and Jan were determined to save as many people as they could, and by any ruse possible. Persuading the Nazis to let them raise pigs for meat for German soldiers gave Jan an excuse to drive his truck into the ghetto: On the pretense of gathering garbage for hog feed, he smuggled food and money in and people out. Both he and Antonina always kept cyanide capsules at the ready, in case they were caught.

Some stayed only a few nights, until they could procure forged papers to get them safely out of Poland; others stayed years. When a German truck pulled up or the doorbell rang, Antonina banged out an Offenbach piece on her piano, signaling her guests to hide and hush.