Of Animals and Men

Of Animals and Men is a creative documentary about what happened in the Warsaw Zoo before and during the Second World War. The film’s main characters are Jan Żabiński, the Zoo’s creator and director for many years, and his wife Antonina Żabińska. In wartime, they offered refuge to the Jews and Polish resistance fighters by hiding them in the desolate Zoo, specifically, in their own house and empty back rooms of animal pens. In total, they managed to shelter about three hundred people, the exact number being unknown. The secret guests used to stay in the Zoo from a few days to many months.