Essay On The Zookeeper's Wife

On Wednesday--September 27, 1939--the Polish capital of Warsaw fell at the feet of the German armies. This ruined the lives of many people, including Jan, Antonina, and Rys Żabińska. Throughout the book, The Zookeeper’s Wife, the character that was the most interesting was Jan Żabińska. Jan played a colossal role in the Underground Resistance against the Germans. To fight against the Germans Jan would hide Jewish people in his zoo and house, make bombs and weapons, and would sneak people out of the Ghetto. Though most of his focus were on the war efforts, he never forgot to keep his family a priority in his life. Antonina, his wife, taught valuable lessons throughout the whole book by how she handled certain situations. Antonina, when confronted by German soldiers, responded in a calm manner. She was the maternal figure that looked out for the well-being of her loved ones and never gave up on her family.
Jan
and Antonina had strong characteristics and personalities, but the war broke them down. During the war, they were on constant alert and were always putting their lives on the line for their country. After the war was over, life never went back to normal for the Żabińskas. The Żabińskas were courageous in the way they put them self in danger by hiding Jewish people in their zoo. Throughout the novel, the conflict of fighting against the Germans is prominent. The whole novel focused on the efforts to defeat the Germans who were killing their people and their ways of life. The book came to a climax during the Uprising, against the German forces, as the Polish fought for their freedom.
Through the rebellious action against the Germans, you find the theme of the home is where the heart is.
These families loved their country and came back to their home after the war—even though their homes were gone. Families, like the Żabińskas, fought for the place that they loved the most. A passage from the book that stood out was "Germany's crime is the greatest crime the world has ever known, because it is not on the scale of History: it is on the scale of evolution." This passage showed the horrors of the war, which most people do not think of. Another passage is “However, Germans, Poles, and Jews stood in three separate lines to receive bread, and rationing was calculated down to the last calorie per day, with Germans receiving 2,613 calories, Poles 669 calories, and Jews only 184 calories.” It shows the amount of injustice that all Jews faced during World War II. The Żabińskas fought for the Jewish people, despite the consequences. As a Holocaust survivor, Simon Wiesenthal, once said, “For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do
nothing.”