Antonina Żabińska (18 July 1908-19 March 1971) was a Polish writer and the wife of Jan Żabiński, zookeeper of the Warsaw Zoo. During World War II, she and her husband rescued 300 Jews from the Holocaust.
Biography[]
Antonina Maria Erdman was born in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire in 1908, and her father was killed during the Russian Revolution. She later settled in Warsaw, Poland and published several books during the 1930s, before marrying zookeeper Jan Żabiński. During World War II, Żabińska and her husband sheltered many Jews who were hiding from the Holocaust in their private home and in the emptied animal enclosures of the Warsaw Zoo, rescuing 300 of them from death. In 1965, Israel awarded the couple the "Righteous Among the Nations" award for their service, and she died in Warsaw in 1971, a year after publishing her final book.