Jan Żabiński was born in 1897 in a wealthy Warsaw family. He became a zoologist and was subsequently director of the Warsaw Zoo for many years. He also fought in the Polish–Bolshevik war, was a member of the AK resistance and participated in the Warsaw Uprising.
He was a populariser of science, writing science books and appearing on the radio, for example in the series ”Dr Żabiński with a microphone”.
His wife Antonina was born July 17, 1908 in Petersburg. She grew up an orphan as her mother succumbed to tuberculosis and her father, Antoni Erdman, was shot by the bolsheviks. In 1923, the possibility of repatriation arose, and the teenage Antonina decided to come to Poland. In 1931 she married Jan Żabiński. (More on the story of Antonina and Jan Żabiński can be found on the Zabinski Foundation webpage.)
During World War Two, the couple hid Jews and resistance fighters both in their home and in the grounds of the zoo. They were a a safe house for Jews escaping from the Warsaw ghetto. Antonina would play a particular melody on the piano as the alarm signal that Germans were approaching so everyone had time to hide. (More on their wartime activities can be found on the Polin website.)
They were honoured as Righteous Among Nations by the Yad Vashem Institute in Israel in 1965.
In 2017 Niki Caro directed Jessica Chastain in the film "The Zookeeper's Wife" about the heroism of Antonina and Jan. Now, to further honour their memory, the zoo itself is changing its name to the "Antonina and Jan Żabiński Zoological Garden".
Sources: Zabinski Foundation webpage, PAP, Polin webpage
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