Żabiński Jan & Żabińska Antonina (Erdman)

Żabiński, Jan Żabińska, Antonina Dr. Jan Żabiński was the director of the Zoological Garden in Warsaw and was the author of many popular-knowledge books about biology and the psychology of animals, as well as the producer of a number of very popular radio-shows. From the moment the Warsaw ghetto was established, Jan and his wife, Antonina, began helping their Jewish friends inside the ghetto. When the situation “behind the walls” became dangerous, “Dr. Żabiński with exceptional modesty occupied himself absolutely without self-interest with the fates of his prewar Jewish suppliers... different private acquaintances as well as strangers,” wrote Irena Mayzel. She added: “He carried them off to the Aryan side, provided them with indispensable personal documents, looked for accommodations, and when necessary hid them at his villa or on the zoo’s grounds.” Between the years 1942 and 1944, a lawyer named Levi (Krzyżanowski), his wife and two daughters hid in Jan’s villa, as well as the lawyer Pavel Frenkel (Zieliński) and his wife, the sculptress Magdalena Gross, and the four-member Kenigswein-Sobol family. Jan, who worked at the National Institute of Hygiene, “was a specialist in finding work for Jews,” wrote writer Rachel Auerbach, who got a job as a clerk in the factory thanks to him. “All of Dr. Żabiński’s actions were done without publicity, without big, noisy words, but very effectively. It should be noted, that Dr. Żabiński provided for his own family (a not-completely-healthy wife and a little son). Not only did he not take a penny from any of those he helped, he also refused to accept gifts... such as sugar or flour,” wrote Irena Mayzel. On the motives for his behavior, Jan wrote in his own testimony: “I do not belong to any party, and no party program was my guide during the occupation... I am a Pole - a democrat. My deeds were and are a consequence of a certain psychological composition, a result of progressive-humanistic upbringing, which Ireceived at home as well as in Kreczmar High School. Many times I wished to analyze the causes for dislike for Jews and I could not find any, besides artificially formed ones.” On September 21, 1965, Yad Vashem recognized Jan Żabiński and his wife, Antonina Żabińska, as Righteous Among the Nations.