The Zookeepers Wife by Diane Ackerman #bookreview

Title: Zookeepers Wife
Author: Diane Ackerman
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published Date: September 17th 2008
Genre: Nonfiction, WWII, History
Format:  Audiobook
Audio Time: 10 hr 56 min

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ .5

Goodreads Summary: 
The New York Times bestseller: a true story in which the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands.

After their zoo was bombed, Polish zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski managed to save over three hundred people from the Nazis by hiding refugees in the empty animal cages. With animal names for these "guests," and human names for the animals, it's no wonder that the zoo's code name became "The House Under a Crazy Star." Best-selling naturalist and acclaimed storyteller Diane Ackerman combines extensive research and an exuberant writing style to re-create this fascinating, true-life story—sharing Antonina's life as "the zookeeper's wife," while examining the disturbing obsessions at the core of Nazism. Winner of the 2008 Orion Award.

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 My Review:

“Why was it, she asked herself, that 'animals can sometimes subdue their predatory ways in only a few months, while humans, despite centuries of refinement, can quickly grow more savage than any beast.” 

Jan and Antonina use their zoo in a way that no one suspected during WWII. They had some liberties that others didn't, but they also had the Germans very close by and because of this they lived in constant fear of being caught. But they never let that stop them and they were able to save 300 Jews during the time Poland was occupied.

During this time they also dealt with an old friend who dealt with animals and zoo in general but had turned to being a Nazi. It turned out the friend was not who they thought he was, and he made life very difficult for them and the animals that he left at the zoo. This friend truly shows how Nazism changes a person in my opinion. He already had some different ideas before the ideology of the Nazi's really sent him over the edge and made him think he could play God with remaking a species.

“How do you retain a spirit of affection and humor in a crazed, homicidal, unpredictable society?”   

Overall I did find myself a little disappointed with this book. I was hoping to actually get to know more about the people that they helped. Instead, it tends to focus on the animals more than what they were actually doing. Having said that though I did enjoy this book, and I found it fascinating how they were able to use the zoo to save so many people. It's something I would have never thought possible. Antonina was left with a lot of the work of the zoo and caring for the people because Jan was doing so much other resistance work. So we really get to know more about her in this story and how she managed everything with the help of the zoo workers. I do kind of wish we had gotten to know more about the other zoo people as well, as a few of the people they were hiding.

For the movie adaption. I actually really liked it. We got to see more of Jan's work inside the ghetto and it helped visualize for me how they were getting everyone out.