Antonina Maria Zhabinskaya, Polish. Antonina Maria _abi_ska, n_e Erdman (July 18, 1908, St. Petersburg – March 19, 1971, Warsaw) – Polish writer, wife and long-term assistant of the zoologist Jan Zhabinsky, owner of the Warsaw Zoo, an activist of the Polish resistance. Righteous man of the world.

Biography

She made her debut with a story Monument to the giraffe in the collection Moje pisemko (1934). In 1936 she published the book How Belovezhskaya Lynxes Became Varshavians (as the first volume of the Stories about Nature series). In 1939 she published the book „Jolly and the Family", which was reprinted several times after the war, including in Russian.

During the Second World War, together with her husband, she hid Jews who had fled from the Warsaw ghetto in the territory of the empty enclosures of the zoo. In 1965, together with her husband, she received the title Righteous Among the World.

After the war, she published novels for children „Lynx" (1948) and „Badger" (1964). In 1968 she published her memoirs „People and Beasts", in which she told, in particular, about the times of the occupation. In 1970, her last book, Our Home at the Zoo, was published.

She was buried in the Stary Powzki cemetery.

The family had two children – the son Ryszard (at the beginning of the 21st century lived in Warsaw) and the daughter Teresa, who was born during the war (lives in Denmark).

In 2007, Diana Ackerman dedicated her book „The Wife of the Owner of the Zoo" (in Poland, under the title „Shelter. A Story of Jews Hidden in the Warsaw Zoo" (2009)). In 2016, a film of the same name was made based on the story, where the role of Antonina was played by Jessica Chastain, and the role of her husband was played by the Belgian Johan Heldenberg.