Jan Zhabinsky , ( Polish Jan Janabiński , April 8, 1897 , Warsaw - July 26, 1974 , ibid.) - Polish zoologist , physiologist , writer and popularizer of zoology , participant in the Warsaw Uprising, Righteous Among the World .
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The brother of the participant of the Warsaw Uprising, Dr. Hannah Petrinovsky , husband of the zoologist and writer Antonina Zhabinskaya .
Biography
He received an agricultural engineer degree at the Higher School of Agriculture in Warsaw, a doctorate in physiology at the University of Warsaw, and a habilitated doctor at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin.
He was the organizer of the Warsaw Zoo , and in 1929 became its first director, remaining in this position until March 1951 .
In the years 1918-1944. He taught at Polish schools, and during the war also at the underground University of Warsaw.
In September 1939, the zoo, near which the Warsaw air defense battery was located, was badly damaged by bombs; many animals died or fled. The Germans took part of the animals to other zoos (in particular, to Königsberg, Hanover and Vienna). The empty premises Jan and Antonina Zhabinsky used to conceal the Jews who secretly made their way to them from the territory of the Warsaw ghetto . Zhabinsky personally visited the ghetto under the pretext of finding waste for fattening pigs, since there was a pig farm on the territory of the zoo during the war. For three years, about 300 Jews were hiding in the territory of the zoo, some of them even lived in the territory of the Zhabinsky villa, located in the territory of the zoo.
Jan Zhabinsky was a soldier of the Craiova Army , and rose to the rank of lieutenant . During the Warsaw uprising, he commanded a platoon, after a severe wound he was placed a prisoner of war in oflag .
Towards the end of 1945 , he returned to Poland and engaged in scientific and popularizing activities, mainly on Polish radio . As a speaker, he spent more than 1,500 broadcasts. Since 1947 - Member of the State Council for the Protection of Nature. He popularized the action to return the bison to the wild. Since 1947, he edited the genealogy book of bison.
For the salvation of Jews in 1965, the Israeli Institute of Yad Vashem gave the spouses the title of Righteous Among the World . Among the saved was the sculptor Magdalena Gross .
He has published over 60 popular science books, as well as 6 translations and 32 scientific works. He was awarded the Commander Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta , Warsaw Prizes, Brunon Wienaver Prize, Polish Radio Golden Microphone Prize.
The wife, Antonina Zhabinskaya, was also a writer. In particular, the author of the memoir “On People and Beasts”, the children's book “Jolly and Her Friends”, also published in Russian translation.
In 2007, American writer Diane Ackerman published The Zookeeper's Wife, a book about the exploits of the Zhabinsky family during the war, based mainly on the memoirs of Antonina Zhabinskaya. In 2009, the Polish publishing house Świat Książki published a translation of this book entitled Shelter. The story of the Jews sheltered in the Warsaw Zoo. " In 2017, the film of the same name was released (in the role of Jan - Johan Heldenberg , in the role of Antonina - Jessica Chastain ).
Jan Zhabinsky and his wife Antonina are buried in Warsaw cemetery Povonzki, sector 212.