She was a writer, journalist and literary critic writing in both Polish and Yiddish. Having obtained her academic education in Lwów, Rachel Auerbach was gradually building a career amongst the literary milieu of prewar Poland. One more “guest”: Rachel Auerbach came from a poor peasant family from Eastern Małopolska (Lesser Poland).Soból himself declared: “ I do not want to leave Poland! Poland is like a mother to me. And when his daughter Regina was marrying Kenigswein, a carpenter and boxer, he invited us to the wedding party”, noted Antonina Żabińska. “He always brought traditional matzo for the holiday of Passover.
#WARSOW PIGS FULL#
He walked around with pockets full of goodies for children and animals.
The other “guest” Regina Kenigswein: Before the war, her father Soból delivered apples, cherries, tomatoes and cucumbers to the ZOO. The artist’s visit to the Warsaw ZOO put an end to the crisis. Several years later she went through a creative crisis and thought she was “finished, artistically”. In 1913, at the age of 22, she exhibited three pieces at the Salon in Zachęta, Museum for Contemporary Polish Art. One of the “guest”: Magdalena Gross fascinated with the animal world began sculpting animals and that is how she became most famous – as an animalier. No wonder among hiding Jews during the war were many personalities of prewar times: It was soon dubbed the villa “Under the Wacky Star”, due to the level of engagement and activities of its owners. The Żabińskis’ villa, located on the ZOO premises, was built according to the most recent architectural trends, in the modernist style. They held regular concerts in the park and invited artists who made good use of park alleys. All the rest survived.īefore the war director Żabiński and his wife Antonina were very keen on art and artists, therefore they made sure that the ZOO became a space which welcomed art. Two guests, Rosa Anzelowna and her mother were killed after they moved to a boarding house in Warsaw. Some stayed there years, others just a few nights. Nearly 300 “guests” were hidden at the villa “Under the Wacky Star” during German occupation. The walls of the villa witnessed the courage, humanity and the attempt to fight with the inhuman system. At the times when giving a Jew a glass of water could result in immediate death, not paying heed to consequences that could be incurred on them, two people decided to give shelter to those who were victimized for the sole membership to a particular nation. It was exactly there, in that spacious, modernistic villa where several hundreds of people found the chance to survive in the cruellest time for humanity. The secret tenants of the house “Under the Wacky Star” We’re talking here about people who were sentenced, but they did nothing wrong. 
If the Germans were victimized, I would have done the same. “I was risking and gave shelter not because they were Jews, but because they were victimized. The Warsaw ZOO which was a hiding spot to nearly 300 Jews is still existing zoological garden which sees around 1,000,000 visitors annually, making it one of the busiest zoos in Europe.
Fifty three years have elapsed since the time when the Żabiński family were awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations. A refuge, a shelter, an ark – that is how the Warsaw ZOO was dubbed by those who survived WWII thanks to the help of Jan and Antonina Żabiński, the zookeeper and his wife.
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