Holocaust survivor recalls real-life story behind ‘The Zookeeper’s Wife’
TORONTO — Holocaust survivor Stefania Sitbon was among 300 Jewish men, women and children who found safe haven during the Second World War in the unlikeliest of places: the Warsaw Zoo.
The extraordinary true story of a Polish couple whose zoo served as a refuge during the German occupation has been translated in the new film “The Zookeeper’s Wife,” starring Jessica Chastain, which is now in theatres. It’s based on the book of the same name by Diane Ackerman, which includes references to Sitbon’s family.
Sitbon, 78, relocated to Canada from Israel in 1989. She and her older brother, Moshe, are said to be the only known living survivors of the Warsaw Zoo rescue effort.
Sitbon was born in February 1939, seven months before the start of the war. Her father, Shmuel Kenigswain, was a Jewish freedom fighter who fought against the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943. Prior to taking part in the act of Jewish resistance, Shmuel urged his wife, Regina, to find refuge elsewhere.