The daughter of former Warsaw Zoo directors who hid Jews from the Nazis in World War II has died at the age of 77.
Dr. Jan and Antonina Zabinski saved hundreds of Jews from the Holocaust by hiding them at the zoo in the occupied Polish capital during the war.
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Teresa Zabinska-Zawadzki at the premier of The Zookeepers Wife in Warsaw in 2017
(Photo: AP)
Their story was told in the 2017 Hollywood movie "The Zookeeper's Wife," which starred Jessica Chastain and Michael McElhatton.
The zoo said on its Facebook Sunday that Teresa Zabinska-Zawadzki died the previous night, at age 77. It did not give the cause of her death.
"She always talked with pride about her parents and their heroism," the zoo said.
It said that after having lived in Denmark, she returned to Warsaw some years ago.
Zabinska-Zawadzki was born at the zoo in 1944, under Nazi German occupation of Poland during World War II.
For years during the war her parents saved some 300 Jews by hiding them at their villa on the zoo grounds, or in empty animal enclosures.
Zabinska-Zawadzki's brother Ryszard, who was 12 years older than her, brought food to the people in hiding and was featured in the movie. He died in 2019.
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Teresa Zabinska-Zawadzki with Jessica Chastain at the premier of The Zookeepers Wife in Warsaw in 2017
(Photo: AP)
Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem has recognized the Zabinskis as Righteous Among the Nations for having risked the family's lives in order to save Jewish lives.
In 2017, Zabinska-Zawadzki attended Warsaw's gala screening of "The Zookeeper's Wife."
The movie was based on a 2007 U.S. bestseller book by the same title, written by American author Diane Ackerman, that revealed the story to the world.