As a tourist in London, I read this book in the evenings after very full eventful days. London was the perfect place to read this book as many parts of London were bombed by the Germans during WWII, and England was very close to being occupied by German troops. We visited Churchill's War Rooms and saw first hand where the day to day decisions about the war were made.
As I was lying on the couch in the large living room on Cromwell Road, I realized just how close Warsaw, Poland was to me. If I traveled by plane, I could arrive in Warsaw within two hours. If I traveled by train, the trip would be sixteen hours. So close....as Antonina realizes when German troops start entering the city. But which is worse? Poland borders Russia on the other side, and Stalin is not much better. Poland is not in a good position for any of its people. Who will save them?
Jan and Antonina are active in the Polish resistance, the Jews are in the Ghetto and their zoo seems safe enough from the German threat. However, as time goes by, both Jan and Antonina realize that the Germans mean to exterminate every single Jew in Poland. Three million Jews were murdered and another two and a half million Poles were put to death by the Germans during the war.
Jan and Antonina have watched the Germans shoot their zoo animals for sport, treat Jews and Poles as animals, and try to starve and destroy the country. Jan and Antonina hide Jews in the zoo's animal enclosures until the Polish Underground can find them a place of safety. There are moments when one wonders just how the human spirit survived.
It is very difficult to read about the German's treatment of the Jews and others who died at the hand of the Germans. My students used to ask me how good people could let such a thing happen? How did they not know what was happening? How can we make sure this doesn't happen again?
I asked myself that same question many times. Here are some of my thoughts. People weren't paying attention. People listened to their leaders and believed them when they talked about the good things happening in Germany. They believed Hitler when he said that immigrants, Jews, non-Europeans, people with disabilities, and those they termed asocial, among other groups were a danger to the Nazi way of thinking. These people were not pure, so they needed to be exterminated. Many people simply turned their heads because it didn't involve them, or they didn't want to become involved. Or maybe they said, "Oh, I don't want to think about that."
Are you paying attention? Are there things happening around you that you need to be addressing? Antonina and Jan did speak up, and they did make a difference in their community - sometimes at a great cost. I challenge you make a difference in yours.
