My friend and I were recently in Warsaw and we both wanted to do the Warsaw Zoo, not so much for…read morethe Zoo but more to see the Villa. We had both read the book "The Zookeeper's Wife" about Jan and Antonina [the zookeeper and his wife} who hid Jews in the zoo during the Nazi occupation of Poland. The times to visit the Villa are limited and only one person is in the Villa at any one time. We had initially made arrangements to see the Villa but were then told there was no visiting on the weekends [and we would be there on the weekend, of course] We had done a tour of Warsaw with a local guide and we thought we would be able to visit on the Saturday [false hope] and then told no, but we could come on the Sunday. [Our tour guide made this call for us] We changed our train plans and visited on Sunday at 11A. The house is small and is furnished as it was in the days of Jan and Antonina. We toured the basement, a series of small rooms with an escape hatch [almost like a doggie door but slightly larger] for people to go thru when the Nazis entered the house [Antonina would begin playing the piano as a signal] it was fascinating and well worth the time invested to see it.
