Bear Pit--Buchenwald "Zoo"

In 1938, as soon as Buchenwald camp opened, Commandant Karl Otto Koch ordered the construction of a park area for the SS guards, just outside the camp fence. The park featured a birdhouse, a water basin, and a zoo for four bears and five monkeys. There was also an elaborate falconry in another area outside the camp where the SS kept birds of prey.


The camp guidebook contains the following order by Commandant Koch, concerning the animals at Buchenwald:

Commanders's Order No. 56 dated 8th September 1938 (Extract)

1. Buchenwald zoological gardens has been created in order to provide diversion and entertainment for the men in their leisure time and to show them the beauty and peculiarities of various animals which they will hardly be able to meet and observe in the wild.

But we must also expect the visitor to be reasonable and fond of animals enough to refrain from anything that might not be good for the animals, cause harm to them or even compromise their health and habits. (...) In the meantime, I again received reports saying that SS men have tied the deer's horns to the fence and cut them loose only after a long while. Furthermore, it has been found that deer have been lured to the fence and tinfoil put in the mouth. In the future, I will find out the perpetrators of such loutish acts and have them reported to the SS Commander in Chief in order to have them punished for cruelty to animals.

The Camp Commandant of Buchenwald Concentration Camp

signed by Koch

SS-Standartenführer

'Commandant Koch who was responsible for the torture and gassing deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, and children is concerned that the men he ordered to carry out those tasks are being "loutish" to the animals in the SS Zoo..........That is almost as hard to imagine as the deeds Koch carried out personally. Again quote, "loutish acts"(against the animals), 25 yards away from the crematoriums where hundreds of thousands were burned in an effort to dispose of the bodies in a fast, expedient way so that the living could be disposed of quicker......."Loutish acts" against the animals in the private zoo, only for SS personnel and their families built by the hands of the Jewish prisoners, who would soon be gassed and passed into the crematoriums.......God must have been awful busy to have ignored Buchenwald.......I can't offer any other alibi for his complacency and inaction......

A year ago thousands of dollars were spent to fly 6 declawed, castrated lions to the United States where a "climate controlled bio dome" was constructed to house them, alone with one man's promise "to provide funds for their up keep and food for the rest of their lives......." Total expenditure at the end of their lives including airfare, housing and upkeep should be in about the 6 million dollar range, not taking into account inflation. They were "rescued" from Bolivia, a country where 3/4 of the children survive on less then poverty, have no education, roof over their head, and go to bed hungry. Thousands of those children have physical deformities and health issue's related to malnutrition. One man and a few other "feel gooders" will spend over 6 million dollars seeing that 6 worthless lions, of no use to their species propagation eat well, sleep in a climate controlled bio dome, and have a happy carefree life, while thousands of children living in the same country the lions were "rescued" from, die of starvation, the elements, and health related issues..........For about 500.00 Mr. Barker and the "feel gooders" could have engaged the services of a qualified vet and had the lions euthanized......The remaining 6 millions dollars that will be spent on the lions could have sent a lot of Bolivian children to the University, as well as fed them, clothed them and housed(no climate controlled bio dome necessary) them.

Mankind wonder's "could something like the Holocaust and Buchenwald ever happen again?" I don't know, you tell me...........'