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ZABINSKI FOUNDATION
ANTONINA & JAN ZABINSKI FOUNDATION
FUNDACJA ŻABIŃSKICH
“Because it was the right thing to do”
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Zabinski Foundation

 

 

 

 

siedziba fundacji zabinskich

teresa zabinska

 

Preserving and Expanding
The Legacy of Jan & Antonina Zabinski

Antonina and Jan Zabinski’s acts and activities performed under extreme duress during the WWII represent heroism, humanitarian spirit, simple decency and sensitivity to human suffering at enormous personal risk.

The story of the Zabinskis was told to the worldwide audience in Diane Ackerman’s book “The Zookeeper’s Wife” which was subsequently turned into a very successful Hollywood movie. The movie reached millions of people, but the story of what happened in Warsaw Zoo during WWII still remained largely unknown to many more people. Story of courage, valour, determination and fortitude while caring for people and helping them. Jan Zabinski the caretaker of the Warsaw Zoo and his wife Antonina rescued about 300 people, mostly Jews. Jan joined the underground resistance and ran a clandestine operation in which Jews were smuggled out of the ghetto and into the zoo. Antonina ran a secret operation hiding the Jews taken by Jan out of the ghetto in their home, in the tunnel and in the empty Zoo cages and then Jan transported them to safety. The Zabinski couple did it at the peril of losing their and their children’s lives. This is their enormous legacy and lessons for wider humanity.

Not many people are aware that the Zabinski villa, the zookeeper’s villa, which is central to the Zabinski’s tale, is still standing in the middle of the Warsaw Zoo. This forceful and compelling beacon of human unity is hidden , and maintained over the years by a small group of people associated with the zoo and with the Zabinski family, on a very small budget.

mission

Goals & Undertakings

The main goal of the foundation is to preserve, popularize and expand in Poland and worldwide the legacy of the Zabinskis’ deeds during WWII, through restauration of the Villa as a world class museum exhibit and building of an additional pavilion to serve as an educational center and museum in which works of artists and scientific collection of a scientist who were hiding in the Villa will be shown, so that both the villa and the pavilion serve as a Zabinski Museum – a monument to humanitarian duty.

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mission

History

Dr. Jan Żabinski - highly regarded scientist (zoologist) and educator, participant of the Polish – Bolsheviks war, AK soldier, participant of the Warsaw Uprising, was an organizer of the Warsaw Zoo and it’s director for many years starting 1929. He developed the Warsaw zoo into one of the most well known and lauded zoological gardens in Europe. He was the author of many popular zoology books and also an educator in a private secondary school. He lived with his wife Antonina and their young son Ryszard (born in 1932) in the villa in the middle of the zoo, where their daughter Teresa was born in 1944. Jan and Antonina met at the Warsaw University’s Institute of Zoology and Antonina shared Jan’s passion for animals. She also was a recognized author of children’s books. After WWII she wrote a book “Of Animals and Men” (published in 1968) which inspired Diane Ackerman to write the book “The Zookeeper’s Wife (“Azyl” in Polish), based on which the Hollywood movie was created in 2017. In 2019 a Polish documentary by the same name as Antonina’s book was shot, and was presented in 2021 in movie theatres in Poland and in USA.
 

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mission

Remembrance, Acknowledgment & Accreditation

While both Jan and Antonina have received high recognition and honors in many quarters over the decades, including recognition of Jan by the State of Israel as “Polish Righteous Among Nations” in 1965 and, more recently, the posthumous award of the “Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restitutia” to both of them by the Polish government in 2015, the full tale and message of their deeds…

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Campaign Videos

Interview with Teresa Żabiński

The Żabiński's Villa at Warsaw Zoo

Debate about “The Zookeeper’s Wife” with Teresa, Shevah Weiss & Wojciech Kozlowski.

Teresa Zawadzki-Zabinski
Passed Away / Zmarła 30.01.2021

It is with great sadness we announce the recent passing of Teresa Zawadzki – Zabinski on 30 January 2021, the daughter of Jan and Antonina who was born in the in the Zookeeper’s Villa in 1944 during WWII and was the last surviving member of the Zabinski family to have lived in the villa where her parents hid at the peril of risking their own and their 2 children’s lives, approximately 300 Jews from the Warsaw ghetto. Teresa’s only brother Ryszard passed away in 2019.

VISIT IN MEMORIAM PAGE

 

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teresa zabinski

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CORPORATE INFORMATION

KRS: 0000834450

REGON: 385878862

NIP: 5252819860

FOUNDERS BOARD

Teresa Zawadzki, Dominik Zawadzki, Richard C. Hallward, David F. Dixon.

MANAGEMENT BOARD

Anat Arazi, CEO;

Dominik Zawadzki, Vice-President.

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