A review by bookishwendy
The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman
4.0
Author Diane Ackerman is a naturalist and poet--not a historian or journalist--so this book is very different from what one might expect of a war narrative set in occupied Warsaw. More than simply narrate the story of a mother, zookeeper and holocaust rescuer, Ackerman explores themes of human empathy and our links with animals. Why is it that some animals seem more human than we are, and some humans seem worse than animals?
Chapters bounce between showing the larger historical context of occupied Poland, and more intimate illustrations of life in the war-torn zoo which quickly become a sort of Noah's Arc for threatened animals and humans alike. This juxtaposing is unusual and rather brave, but I think the author pulls it off with her poetic sensibilities. By lining up contrasting images and ideas, our brains make connections that wouldn't be possible in a more traditional narration.
One notable chapter tells how the Nazi search for "racial purity" extended to animals, and that after German zoos looted captured eastern zoos, they started programs to back-breed extinct European mega-fauna such as the aurochs and tarpan by selecting for certain genes in eastern European (more "ancient-looking") cattle and horses, respectively. The controversial fruits of that project still exist today in Poland's primeval national forest. Yet in a weird twist, the motivation of ecological racism had consequences that allowed the directors of the Warsaw zoo to hide over 300 people and save them from certain death.
Chapters bounce between showing the larger historical context of occupied Poland, and more intimate illustrations of life in the war-torn zoo which quickly become a sort of Noah's Arc for threatened animals and humans alike. This juxtaposing is unusual and rather brave, but I think the author pulls it off with her poetic sensibilities. By lining up contrasting images and ideas, our brains make connections that wouldn't be possible in a more traditional narration.
One notable chapter tells how the Nazi search for "racial purity" extended to animals, and that after German zoos looted captured eastern zoos, they started programs to back-breed extinct European mega-fauna such as the aurochs and tarpan by selecting for certain genes in eastern European (more "ancient-looking") cattle and horses, respectively. The controversial fruits of that project still exist today in Poland's primeval national forest. Yet in a weird twist, the motivation of ecological racism had consequences that allowed the directors of the Warsaw zoo to hide over 300 people and save them from certain death.