The true story of this resistant couple behind the film

This Friday, ARTE is airing a film centered on World War II, Zookeeper’s wife. A 2017 feature film directed by Nicky Caro, starring Jessica Chastain, Johann Heldenberg and Daniel Brühl, recounts the heroic deeds of Jan and Antonina Zabinski. A couple at the head of the Warsaw Zoo who will save the inhabitants of the ghetto from the Nazi occupiers. A network of cattle ranches and underground caches will be the base of their resistance, helping Son escape the horrors.

Zookeeper’s wife : The Zoo, an escape for those who escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto

Zookeeper’s wife, a film inspired by real events and characters. Indeed, Antonia and Jan Zabinski, involved in the Polish resistance, hid around 300 Jews while their country was occupied by the Nazis. For this, they used a large plot of land offered by their zoo, but not only that. Indeed, his villa, with a basement connected to a secret tunnel, allowed many Jews to escape from the Warsaw Ghetto. The zoo, a place that sounds laughable when we talk about resistance, but which was very helpful. The couple’s daughter Teresa explained itAFP : “My father knew that it would never occur to the Germans that so many people could hide in a place with open windows and no curtains.”

Jessica Chastain is marked by the bravery of the Zabinski couple

Although Antonia and Jan died in the early 1970s, their zoo still exists. Saved by “The Guard’s Wife” In 1949, today it has 5,500 animals that visitors come to see. The famous villa, cellar and tunnel are now a museum, enough to perpetuate the duty of historical memory. The Zabinskis, the spouses who left their mark on Jan’s interpreter Jessica Chastain. in the columns of FigaroThe actress paid tribute to him: “Antonina and Jan were ordinary people who risked everything to save others – their safety and the safety of their children. They sowed hope in such dark times.”