Both Jan and Antonina have received over the years many honors and appreciation: Jan and Antonina Zabinski were honored by the State of Israel with awarding and recognizing them in September 1965 as “Righteous Among Nations”. In October 1968 Dr. Jan Zabinski planted a tree on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem during a tree planting ceremony at Yad Vashem.
And in 2008 both Jan and Antonina were posthumously awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta by President Lech Kaczyński.
However Jan Zabinski also experienced persecution while he was forced to resign his post as zoo director in 1951, after rebuilding the zoo following the war. He was subject to politically motivated accusations by the communist authorities of collaboration with the Nazis during the war.
The grandson of Jan and Antonina Zabinski, Dominik Zawadzki remains closely connected with the villa as did the Zabinskis’ daughter, Teresa Zawadzki – Zabinski for many years prior to her unfortunate passing away in January 2021. Teresa’s brother and Zabinski’s son Ryszard who spent his childhood in the villa and at the age of 10-11 tended to the fugitives needs and brought them food, and was remembered by them very warmly, also passed away in 2019.
Although the Hollywood movie released in 2017 has helped to stir interest in the villa and the Zabinskis story, the villa has never had its own financial nor management platform to truly harness this interest and its universally resonant message, or the history it has seen.
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