Jan Żabiński

Jan Żabiński
Jan Żabiński in Warsaw, c. 1967
Born	8 April 1897
Died	26 July 1974(1974-07-26) (aged 77) Warsaw
Nationality	Polish
Occupation	Educator, scientist, director of Warsaw Zoo
Known for	Holocaust rescue
Awards

Jan Żabiński pronounced [ˈjan ʐabiˈɲski] (8 April 1897 – 26 July 1974, Warsaw) and his wife Antonina Żabińska née Erdman (1908–1971) were a wedded couple from Warsaw, recognized by the State of Israel as the Polish Righteous Among the Nations for their heroic rescue of Jews during the Holocaust in occupied Poland. Jan Żabiński was a zoologist and zootechnician by profession, a scientist, and organizer and director of the renowned Warsaw Zoo before and during World War II. He became director of the Zoo before the outbreak of war but during the occupation of Poland also held a prestigious function of the Superintendent of the city's public parks in 1939–1945. A street in Warsaw is named after him.

Jan and his wife Antonina and their son Ryszard used their personal villa and the zoo itself to shelter hundreds of displaced Jews. Additionally he fought during the Warsaw Uprising, was subsequently injured and became a prisoner of war. After his liberation Żabiński became a member of the State Commission for the Preservation of Nature (Państwowa Rada Ochrony Przyrody). Jan Żabiński authored approximately 60 popular science books. His wife Antonina authored several children’s books written from the perspective of animals.

Jan Żabiński was born in Warsaw, the son of Józef Żabiński and his wife Helena née Strzeszewska who taught him the love of animals. Jan joined the nascent Polish Army in 1919 and took part in the Polish–Soviet War of 1920, for which he was awarded his first Cross of Valour. In the reconstituted sovereign Poland of the interwar period, Żabiński became an agricultural engineer with the Doctoral Degree in Zoology. He was employed at the Institute of Zoology and Physiology of Animals of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW), and met Antonina Erdman, his future wife there. He was the co-founder of the Warsaw Zoo, and served as its director for a decade from 1929 until the German invasion of Poland in 1939. He also taught geography at the private Kreczmar Secondary . In 1937 Żabiński supervised the birth of "Tuzinka", the 12th elephant ever born in captivity. After the liberation of Poland in 1945, he soon resumed his position of the Warsaw Zoo director, and served there until March 1951. For his Holocaust rescue, he was posthumously awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta with the Star, by President Lech Kaczyński in 2008. His wife Antonina was also awarded the Commander's Cross.