The Nazis killed zebras too…
I’ve been reading a lot of Holocaust memoirs recently. I know, it isn’t exactly perfect Spring reading, but I’m headed to Berlin in a few weeks, and I decided that this project would be my self-appointed preparation, I affectionately call it “the most depressing reading list ever.” I recently finished one book that completely and totally suprised me, The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman. Diane Ackerman is a renowned naturalist, and she tells us the story of Antonina and Jan Zabinski, the caretakers of the animals and facilities at the Warsaw Zoo. Very quickly, most of the animals are killed, and their destruction is poetic and moving (and comprehensible) in a way that allows us to enter into the realization of the human destruction that is unfolding in Warsaw. In the next part of the story, the Zabinski’s go on to harbor and rescue hundreds of Jews, sometimes hiding them in the animal cages. The power of the book is the interplay between the animal and human worlds, and the deception and violence that define their boundaries. Something about how the Zabinski’s nicknamed the hidden Jews with animal names has stuck in my mind, humanizing through their empathy with the natural world. So I’m offering a recommendation here - put it on your own reading list, but maybe it belongs on the one that renews your hope in humanity (and animals).