The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2007

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Author’s Note-Chapter 11

Chapters 12-22

Chapter 23-Details

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

The Insuperable Spirit of an Occupied Nation

In 1939, Germany’s military machine looked unstoppable. Having already annexed former Czechoslovakia, they turned their blitzkrieg or “lightning war” strategy on Poland, defeating the less well-armed, conventional Polish army within a month. With Nazi figureheads installed at every level of government and an overabundance of Nazi soldiers—especially SS soldiers—in place, the Nazis began to move swiftly to complete what had obviously been a carefully planned, long intended action: the removal of Jewish citizens into an enclave in Warsaw.

The Germans expected that, having quickly defeated the Polish military, they would soon dominate all aspects of Polish life. Their executions of Polish artists and intellectuals signaled an effort to stamp out Polish civil society and therefore any chance of dissent.

What the Nazis had not anticipated and therefore were not prepared for was the unwillingness of the Polish people to surrender to the rule, the arbitrariness, and the arrogance of the Nazi high command. As Ackerman writes, so many generations of Poles had gone to war against Germans and their forebears that it was virtually a family tradition to fight against Germans. With the end of the First World War, only two decades before, the Poles had won their independence from the Germans and the Russians, ending the foreign rule that had divided their nation for centuries. Having only recently won their freedom, they had no intention of giving up. The heroic actions not only of Jan and Antonina but of the many ordinary Poles—both Jewish and non-Jewish—who help them in their work illustrate The Insuperable Spirit of an Occupied Nation.

At every level of what seemed a compliant government, there were closeted members of the Home Army, the Polish resistance. Jan was emblematic of this underground wave of silently connected individuals intent on disrupting the German rule of their homeland. He was well-acquainted with fighting the Germans, as he had done so in WWI. Recognizing that the Germans smugly believed themselves a “superior race,” he used this folly to lure them into complacency, allowing him and his comrades to work behind the backs of the Nazis to undermine their efforts. The author writes that, though there were no free newspapers in Poland, the Underground published and widely distributed reports of the accomplishments of the resistance. They made sure they sent a copy of each report to the Gestapo headquarters. Whenever possible, they flaunted their achievements before the Germans, signifying the impotence of the superior military power to quell the Polish spirit.

Though the British and French failed to protect Poland from the Germans, and though the Russians stopped short of coming to the aid of the Poles in the Warsaw Uprising, still the spirited Polish fought on until, with the advance of the Russians, they cast the Germans out of their land once again. In retrospect, it is not surprising that Poland emerged from Soviet domination and proclaimed its independence after 45 years. This episode of Polish history shows how, even under occupation by a militarily superior force, people can preserve a spirit of resistance through collective action, demonstrating their ability to withstand overwhelming odds.

The Myth of Racial Superiority

The scale of the Nazi genocide was so extreme that, even as it was happening, many people failed to believe it. The planned extermination of Europe’s Jewish population proceeded in stages—first forced relocation to ghettos like the one in Warsaw, then transportation to concentration camps, and then mass murder within those camps—and each new stage seemed impossible until it happened. Even the targets of this campaign often found it impossible to imagine that anyone could behave with such calculated inhumanity.

One of the lessons the author shares through the narrative is that the Nazis had clearly intended to follow through with this mass extermination from the moment they invaded Poland. Ackerman reveals that the Jews were only the first group of people the Nazis intended to remove. The historical record shows that LGBTQ+ persons, Black people, Roma people, and other distinct populations were also targeted for death. While they paid lip service to the German Lutheran churches and the Vatican, the German High Command had no regard for the Christian religions either. They avoided identifying with any organized religious group, since doing so would open them to outcry from religious leaders. Ackerman shows that, had the Nazis not been defeated, the atrocities visited upon the Jews would eventually have extended to many other populations as well. By the time the Nazis overwhelmed the Polish forces and took over Warsaw, they were already putting into motion a well-established plan to rule every aspect of Polish society, a dry run for taking over every level of European society. Poland would be a proving ground for the violent reconstruction of human civilization.

Histories of the Holocaust have been defined by the same sense of incredulity that greeted the events as they happened—questions of how human beings could have behaved in such inhuman ways. Ackerman offers a partial answer to these questions as she reveals that the German High Command was completely invested in the notion of their racial superiority. They firmly believed in an occult Teutonic mythology that they were going to embody throughout the world. The Myth of Racial Superiority had such a powerful hold on their imaginations that, for them, it was enough to justify the mass murder of entire populations. Ackerman points out that the Nazi obsession with racial purity extended even beyond the human realm. After eliminating or subjugating all the human communities they saw as “inferior” to themselves, they intended to re-engineer extinct animals through selective breeding, believing that these “noble” animals had been corrupted by interbreeding with “lesser” species. The Nazi officers who patrol the Warsaw Zoo discuss plans to replace the native plants with German ones, which they believe to be superior just as they believe themselves to be “superior” to all other people. As self-evidently ridiculous as all this is, it also shows how extraordinarily dangerous The Myth of Racial Superiority can be: The Nazis were so convinced of their own superiority that they failed to see the humanity of others.

The Chaos of War

Drawing from the historical record as well as the writings of Antonina and the remembrances of others who lived through it, Ackerman describes the realities of occupied Warsaw in a way that highlights The Chaos of War: Though the invading Germans direct their worst homicidal impulses at the city’s Jewish population, the occupation upends life for nearly everyone in the city. The consequences of the invasion are unpredictable, and nothing can be taken for granted. Even the relative safety of the villa must be earned on a daily basis by the tireless efforts of Jan, Antonina, and their many helpers.

As the story begins, the central characters find themselves hoping that what has happened many times in the past—Germany invading Poland—will not happen yet again. With the violent overthrow of the Polish state, any sense of social stability or safety breaks down. The author captures this in her description of the destruction of the Warsaw Zoo, the butchering of its animal population, and the scattering of Polish soldiers with no way for their family members to know whether they are living or dead. As the occupiers attempt to impose a new order, they create further chaos: A regime of malicious men makes clear that they are instituting painful, pointless changes, ending 20 years of optimism, growth, and liberty.

The Warsaw Ghetto, an open-air prison housing people whose only crime is being Jewish, becomes the scene of even more unpredictable violence and destruction. For Poles outside the Ghetto yearning to assist those inside, there is the hellish suspense of wondering when the Gestapo will find out someone helped a Jew, summarily executing them and everyone they love on the spot. For the Żabińskis, there were multiple occasions when they could have died in an instant with no possible recourse or justice.

The eventual defeat of the Germans brings still more chaos. Even when the Russians arrive to liberate Warsaw from German occupation, there is still violence, theft, uncertainty, the forced mass movement of innocent people, and death. When the violence is and displaced people like Antonina return home, they find desolation and a total lack of resources.

Ackerman is careful to note, as Antonina did in her diaries, that even in the midst of war, some of the greatest examples of human goodness, sacrifice, love, and hope emerge. It is possible to create a space for life, love, and hope amid the chaos of war, but it requires tireless, collective effort.