 an elephant, a giraffe).After the surrender of Warsaw to the Germans, most of the 'valuable' animal species (in the eyes of German representative Lutz Heck) were taken to the Schorfeide reserve in Germany, while others, described as 'not valuable' were shot, and the zoo was closed.During World War II, Jan Żabiński, the director, together with his wife Antonina and their son Ryszard, saved more than 300 Jews from the Holocaust.