Demolition and Recovery
Making things worse for the Berlin Zoo’s animals was the nearby Zoo Tower – one of the massive concrete towers brimming with antiaircraft guns, that sought to protect Berlin from Allied bombers. Picture the distress felt by pet dogs or cats when fireworks go off, and multiply it by orders of magnitude to get an idea of what the Berlin zoo’s residents must have gone through. The caged denizens were forced to endure the roar and drone of heavy bombers overhead; the shrieks, explosions, and concussions of the detonating bombs; the ensuing smoke and fire and dust; and the rapid cracks and booms of the flak guns firing away. Many of the zoo’s animals went insane from fear, and others died outright from terror.
Among the casualties of the November bombing raid were 2 giraffes, 2 hippos, a black rhinoceros, a sea elephant, and half the deer and antelopes. Out of 8 elephants, the only survivor was a bull named Siam, who exhibited signs of psychological trauma until his death in 1947 from natural causes. Meat being scarce during the war, the dead animals were butchered to feed the staff and the teams of soldiers and prisoners of war who were put to work clearing the rubble.
As one of the Heck brothers put it: “We had meat coming out of our ears. … Many of the edible animals which had fallen victim to the air raid ended up in the pot. Particularly tasty were the crocodiles’ tails; cooked tender in big containers, they tasted like fat chicken. The dead deer, buffalo and antelopes provided hundreds of meals for man and beast alike. Later on, bear ham and bear sausage were a particular delicacy.”
The bombing raids of November, 1943, were not the end of the zoo’s ordeal, as it was struck again and again in subsequent months by explosive bombs, incendiaries, and aerial mines. In 1944 alone, it was hit on January 29th and 30th, February 15th, March 4th, May 8th, numerous times in October, and on December 31st. It was struck again on February 24th, 1945. Despite the damage, the Berlin Zoo remained open almost to the end, not closing its gates until April 22nd, 1945, as the Red Army stormed into the city. What little had been left of the zoo was completely destroyed in the ensuing battle.
Among the few survivors was a shoebill bird, whose keeper took it home, and somehow managed to keep it alive as Berlin was systematically destroyed in bitter street fighting. Another survivor was a baby hippo named Knautschke, that had miraculously made it through the raids of November, 1943, when some boys braved the fires engulfing its shelter to help it escape into a nearby pond. Knautschke survived the war, and became a darling of the public when the zoo reopened. He went on to sire 35 offspring, before he died decades later, in 1988. Today, a life size sculpture of Knautschke stands at the entrance to the Berlin Zoo’s hippo building.
_________________
Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading
I Heart Berlin – The Tragic Fame of a Hippo and an Elephant From the Berlin Zoo
Prenger, Kevin – War Zone Zoo: The Berlin Zoo and World War 2 (2018)
Smithsonian – When the Nazis Tried to Bring Animals Back From Extinction
War History Online – War Zone Zoo: Remarkable Story of the Berlin Zoo in WW2