She focuses a lot of attention on the animals in the zoo and how their behaviors changed throughout the war. This was really powerful to me because it showed how helpless everyone was back then. At the beginning of the book, Ackerman described the animals as playful, mischievous, and sensitive. They each had their own personality and sometimes they seemed like real people. When the Nazi bombers attacked Warsaw, this affected the Zabinski's zoo a lot. It killed many animals and the animals that were alive were "hiding in their cages and basins" (Ackerman 636). Many animals were scared when they heard gunshots. Ackerman gives a very detailed description of the dead animals. For example there are two giraffes that lay dead on the ground "legs twisted, shockingly horizontal" (Ackerman 636). She does this to show how innocent animals died in such terrible ways. This is very similar to how innocent people would die terrible ways by the Nazi. To also show how cruel the Nazi's were, Ackerman uses historical data to say that people would later learn that "Hitler had staged a phony attack on the German border town of Gleiweitz where SS troops dressed in Polish uniforms fake call to arms against Germany"(Ackerman 463). Which shows that to get what he wanted, Hitler would even attack his own country. He let the SS troops to dress up dead German prisoners into Polish uniforms. This way people will think that Polish attack. I really don't understand how a leader can attack his own country and harm his own people, but it shows that the Nazi's would do anything to get what they want and would not care who they harmed.
To save their zoo and help protect the underground movement, the Zabinski's would agree to "lend" their animals to Lutz Heck. They did not trust him but they knew they needed his support. By describing Heck, Ackerman gave a very detailed description of the scientists in the Nazi party.