Nazi Animal Protection
During the 3rd Reich, Germany passed some of the strictest laws protecting animals. Many of these laws included how to provide for animals, how to protect them, how to transport them, even how to breed and slaughter them. Many people were impressed on the detail as well as the medical and legal sophistication that the Nazi laws had on the treatment of animals. A German biologist believed that the public education system should be more involved and he made a decree of November 1934, from the ministry of science that stated that all students of every level were to be instructed in the meaning of animal protection laws.
In August of 1933 Hermann Göring announced restrictions on animal experimentation. The biggest restriction Göring set was banning vivisection. If caught preforming vivisection, one could be sent to a concentration camp. There were of course exceptions to this ban as they allowed specific prestigious research institutes to not get penalized for this. The Animal Protection law that was set in 1933 stated that for anyone who would needlessly torment or mishandle an animal in a rough way could be sentenced a maximum penalty of two and a half years in jail plus a fine. This excluded things such as the preparation of frog legs, castration (with a veterinarian present), and only put limits on the work that could be done by animals on farms, in mines and in other environments. However, there were no restrictions on euthanasia and it was even mandated by the government from time to time. (Sax)
“Animals at War- Circus Elephants Clear Bomb Damage, Hamburg, November 1945” byCarpenter (Sergeant), No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit licensed under IWM Non Commercial License
The War
WWII proved to be much more problematic than WWI had been on the Berlin Zoo. Many of the Zookeepers were drafted and this left the zoo very short staffed. To help resolve this issue, some Prisoners of War were sent to work in the zoo. Most somewhat enjoyed themselves as the work was relatively humane compared to the Prisoners of War that were sent to work for the war industry. Those zookeepers that were not drafted had no other choice than to live in the zoos with their wives and maintain what they could. Citizens of Berlin often went to the zoo in search of shelter.
“Berlin, Brandenburger Tor und Pariser Platz” by Carl Weinrother is licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0
Being in the center of the city, there was always fighting going on in very close proximities to the zoo. There was even fighting that took place in the zoo itself, regardless of the damage caused by that, nothing had a more severe impact on the zoo than the heavy bombings. Between September 8, 1941 and February 24, 1945 the Berlin zoo was bombed 12 times. On the nights of November 22-23, 1943 some of the worst bombings took place with over 1,000 incendiary and phosphorus bombs, demolition bombs, and aerial mines being dropped on the zoo. This caused substantial destruction to the zoo buildings, damaging or destroying many of them. On the two nights of January 29-30, 1944 heavy bombing killed a third of the animals and hit the very center of the aquarium destroying much of the glass. The next heaviest bombing that same month had finished destroying any buildings that were spared in the first.
Although soldiers were often times running trenches, shooting their guns and hauling tanks through the zoo, the zookeepers and their wives continuously maintained the zoo and whatever animals were left. By the end of WWII only 91 animals out of the 3,715 that were there in 1939 were still alive. There were zero animal houses that remained intact at all, many of them were completely annihilated. The administration building and the directors house were both hit, destroying almost all of the Berlin Zoos and the aquariums archives. (Strehlow)
“Elephants in the city” photo taken by the author