Saturn the Alligator was known as Hitler’s alligator. He is, in a certain respect, the last German prisoner of war held in the Soviet Union, now Russia, for three quarters of a century following the end of the war.
Born in 1936 in Mississippi, he was taken to Berlin in 1936. At the time, Nazi Germany was enjoying what some people refer to as their springtime. It hosted both the winter and summer Olympics that year, and showcased the perceived successes of the then new regime. While many other countries were struggling following the Great Depression, Germany seemed to be doing well. And the alligator was brought to Germany under such seemingly ideal circumstances, and kept at the Berlin Zoo.
Obviously, this peace and tranquility did not last particularly long. World War II broke out a few years later. Before long, the war would come to Berlin itself, as the German capital was targeted literally hundreds of times. On the 22nd and 23rd November, 1943. Berlin Zoo largely destroyed. When Russian tanks rolled in the streets of Moscow, Saturn could be heard crying out. Experts believe that he was reminded of the war years, when he was in Berlin during assaults on that city. Saturn seemed to be suffering from some sort of animal version of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Hearing this, in particular, moved me. We never seem to think about the innocent parties that wind up being so greatly affected by the collective stupidity of our modern civilization. Some people will dismiss alligators as monsters, or are just afraid of them. But this poor creature was taken from his home dwelling against his will, and brought across the ocean to be in a confined habitat so that humans can look down upon him, literally. Without knowing what was going on, he and presumably hundreds of other creatures at the Berlin Zoo were attacked during one of those bombing raids during World War II, and surely must have heard and felt some other attacks that were not quite as direct. Literally half a century later, this poor alligator showed signs of being haunted by those monumentally stupid human actions. By then, of course, he was in a different city and country, but still had to hear tanks and endure people throwing objects at him. Perhaps it is a good thing that he could not understand the significance of the nickname of "Hitler" that people gave him. Presumably, they named him that because they dismissed him as some freakish monster. In reality, you really have to wonder if human beings living in the modern society that we have created for ourselves are not the real monsters.
It did not help, of course, that he was harassed by people, who pelted him with glass and rocks. Also, he survived poor architecture, when part of the structure that he was housed in suddenly came down, and he himself was nearly struck in the head by a piece of falling concrete.
Earlier this year – on May 22, 2020 – Saturn died. He reached the age of 84, which is almost double the life expectancy of American alligators. His body is going to be stuffed and put on display at Moscow’s State Darwin Museum.
I posted after having just learned of this interesting, and admittedly peculiar, story earlier this morning. It seemed to me to have tragic aspects to it, as an illustration that human beings are not the only ones who suffer because of human folly. World War II was sometimes considered the most preventable war in human history. It may very well have been, and surely, in any case, it was a war that reflected startling levels of arrogance and brutality. And this story serves as a reminder that not all the victims of that war are guilty of anything, even in terms of being human, and thus, associated with our often astonishing levels of stupidity.
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