The Zookeeper's Wife

On the flight to Poland, we serendipitously watched the movie, The Zookeeper’s Wife.  It recounted the quietly heroic efforts of the Warsaw Zookeeper, his wife and many of their zoo staff, to hide and save 300 Jews during WWII.

Focusing heavily on those that could easily disguise into normal Warsaw life, this brave couple helped Jews escape from the Ghetto, and sheltered them in their home’s basement while they could arrange for new documentation/papers and then a way for them to safely resettle in the local community. 

The Zookeeper’s wife would use the piano as a communication tool, playing fast-paced tunes to warn people when to hide and calmer tunes in the evening when it was safe from them to come out of hiding. 

Although we are not fond of zoos, we of course felt compelled to visit this safe-haven.  

Located just across the river (self-reputed to be Europe's most beautiful) from the historic part of town, we were able to walk to the zoo easily from our hotel.   Although it didn't get off to the best start (requiring a quick change of plans and a short delay) - at least we made it unsoiled -  the walk across the bridge and through the parks to get there was a memorable one in and of itself.

Visiting the zoo itself was uncomfortable, with the conditions for some of the animals (particularly the polar bears) seeming quite inappropriate.  We hope that the renovations they are undertaking will remedy this soon.    

But its compelling history intensified the feelings where you can see aspects of the movie in real life.  

At the zoo, for example, one can see the tunnel that was used for escape and the house where they lived.  

It turned out that you could make appointments to view the inside of the house but this was not mentioned anywhere except by the person we happened to meet that was sitting in the house.  

Unfortunately, she was not willing to make an appointment for us that morning and so we instead sat outside of it, reading more about the remarkable story and looking online at photographs of the home's inside.

How many more stories of these quiet heroes there must be that have not yet (and may never) surface.