Jan Żabiński was appointed Director of the Zoological Garden in 1929. To earn her keep she worked as a tutor while embarking up her studies of archival science, which eventually enabled her to get a job at the Warsaw School of Life Sciences. Later Antonina studied piano at the music conservatory. At the age of 15 Antonina came to Warsaw, where she studied languages as well as drawing and painting. Antonina fled to Tashkient together with her aunt, who took the young orphaned girl under her care. She lost both parents in 1917, at the age of 9 as members of the intelligentsia, they were murdered by the revolutionaries. “I followed my interests while choosing my subject of studies, but only after I had become a director of the newly established Zoological Garden in Warsaw did I finally feel at the right place,” he recalled years later.Īntonina Żabińska spent the first years of her life in Russia where her father, Antoni, worked as a railway engineer. He was also an art lover and spent several years studying painting and drawing at the School of Fine Arts. Instead he completed a course of industrial agriculture and was awarded doctorates in agronomy engineering and physiology. Jan Żabiński had hoped to study ZOOlogy in Belgium, but The First World War put an end to his plans. She began with fish and would come back from each outing with frogs or newts.” “She was passionate about keeping animals at home, even the tiniest ones. Jan Żabiński inherited a love for animals from his mother.
The Engineer, the Physiologist, the Artist They were both social activists engaged in various altruistic initiatives, convinced that it was the only right thing to do. Jan was a researcher at the Department of ZOOlogy and Animal Physiology, Antonina was an archivist.
They met in the 1920s at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. For extending this help, in 1965, Jan Żabiński and his wife Antonina were honoured with the title of Righteous Among the Nations.ĭid Jan Żabiński and Antonina Erdman share a passion for natural sciences? Perhaps they did. The Żabińskis’ modern-style villa, located on the ZOO grounds and known as “The House Under the Wacky Star”, provided refuge for, among others, writer Rachela Auerbach, sculptress Magdalena Gross, as well as for Samuel Kenigswein and his family. Teresa Zawadzki i Stefania Koeningswein – Precautions 5m 18sĭuring the years of German occupation in Poland, the Warsaw Zoological Garden, run by Director Jan Żabiński, became a place of hiding for many Jews. Teresa Zawadzki i Stefania Koeningswein – Activities of Żabińskis, a division of responsibilities at home 6m 13s Teresa Zawadzki i Stefania Koeningswein – Żabińskis contact with Zieglerem 7m 00s Teresa Zawadzki i Stefania Koeningswein – Zygmunt Piątek's help, part 2 6m 02s Teresa Zawadzki i Stefania Koeningswein – A cooperation between the AK and the Jewish fighters 2m 58s Teresa Zawadzki i Stefania Koeningswein – Zygmunt Piątek's help 7m 20s A written English translation will be available soon. You can listen to the extracts only in this language.