And we kids knew when we heard the playing we'd run like to hide. "When got a sign from the gate that the Germans came – because from time to time they'd come to check – she'd sit down by the piano and start to play. Chastain in the film, Zabinski would play piano to either signal that it was safe for those in hiding to come out, or that there was potential danger lurking. Sitbon's own recollections from her time at the zoo.Īs showcased by Ms. Chastain, a two-time Oscar nominee, portrays Antonina Zabinski in The Zookeeper's Wife, and several key elements depicted onscreen mirror Ms. "We could go out from the basement only after 5 p.m after the staff left because nobody knew that we were there," she recalled. During the day, those in hiding would stay tucked away to steer clear of the zoo's other staffers and soldiers who patrolled the property. They became life-saving shelters for hundreds of Jews seeking safety.įor 2 1/2 months, the zoo served as Ms. With many of the zoo's animals killed in bombings, by soldiers or transported to the Berlin Zoo, some pens and cages that typically housed them sat empty. Sitbon's father had learned about the Zabinskis through the underground resistance movement and had heard that the couple could shelter his family until they could find safety elsewhere. Sitbon's grandfather used to bring fruits he couldn't sell to the Warsaw Zoo, which is how her mother knew of the couple who oversaw the property: Jan and Antonina Zabinski. Sitbon said in a phone interview from her Toronto home. … But I want you and the kids to survive,'" Ms. What we have is some guns, some rifles and they come with tanks and airplanes and they will destroy the ghetto. Prior to taking part in the act of Jewish resistance, Shmuel urged his wife, Regina, to find refuge elsewhere. Her father, Shmuel Kenigswain, was a Jewish freedom fighter who fought against the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943. Sitbon was born in February, 1939, seven months before the start of the war. She and her older brother, Moshe, are said to be the only known living survivors of the Warsaw Zoo rescue effort. Sitbon, 78, relocated to Canada from Israel in 1989. It's based on the book of the same name by Diane Ackerman, which includes references to Ms. The extraordinary true story of a Polish couple whose zoo served as a refuge during the German occupation has been translated in the new film The Zookeeper's Wife, starring Jessica Chastain, which is now in theatres. Holocaust survivor Stefania Sitbon was among 300 Jewish men, women and children who found safe haven during the Second World War in the unlikeliest of places: the Warsaw Zoo.
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