The daughter of former Warsaw Zoo leaders who went under Nazi suspicion during World War II has died at the age of 77.
Dr. Jan and Antonina Zabinski saved hundreds of Holocaust captures by hiding them at the zoo in the Polish capital during the war.
Teresa Zabinska-Zawadzki at the head wife of the Zookeepers Wife in Warsaw in 2017
(Photo: AP)
His story was told in the 2017 Hollywood movie “The Zookeeper’s Wife,” starring Jessica Chastain and Michael McElhatton.
The zoo reported on its Facebook Sunday that Teresa Zabinska-Zawadzki had died the night before, at the age of 77. He did not give the cause of her death.
“She always spoke proudly of her parents and their bravery,” said the zoo.
She said that after living in Denmark, she returned to Warsaw a few years ago.
Jan and antonia zabinski
(Photos: Courtesy of Yad Vashem)
Zabinska-Zawadzki was born at the zoo in 1944, under Nazi German occupation of Poland during World War II.
For years in the war her parents saved around 300 coming together by hiding them in their village on zoo land, or in empty animal parks.
Zabinska-Zawadzki’s brother Ryszard, who was 12 years older than her, fed the hideaways and was featured in the film. He died in 2019.
Teresa Zabinska-Zawadzki with Jessica Chastain at the Zookeepers Wife premiere in Warsaw in 2017
(Photo: AP)
The Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem has recognized the Zabinskis as a Right among the Nations for endangering family life to save Jewish lives.
In 2017, Zabinska-Zawadzki went to the Warsaw gala screening of “The Zookeeper’s Wife.”
The film was based on the 2007 U.S. bestselling book of the same title, written by American author Diane Ackerman, who revealed the story to the world.