Aida the Elephant(1935-1981)
- Actress
Aida, the Elephant, lived at the Rotterdam Zoo until July 23rd, 1981,
when she died at age 46. Aida arrived in Rotterdam from Thailand on Jul
9th, 1940, at the age of 5 years-old, already trained to obey some
human commands in Thai. That was 2 months after the Nazi blitz bombing
of Rotterdam on May 14th, 1940, which destroyed the old Rotterdam Zoo
and killed over 900 people and left over 30,000 homeless. The zoo
reopened in its current location in December of 1940. Aida then
survived 18 Allied air force bombing runs over Rotterdam from June 1941
to December 1944. Then Aida survived the Nazi food blockade of the
Netherlands until May 1st, 1945, when Allied food relief was parachute
dropped into Rotterdam. Over 18,000 Dutch citizens starved to death
that winter. Another survivor of the Nazi food blockade was actress
"Audrey Hepburn" who took refuge with her mother's family in Arnhem:
Her family survived the famine by beating tulip bulbs into flour and
baking tulip bread. Until her death, Aida was a prized performing
elephant at the Rotterdam Zoo often appearing before classes of
children and responding to the commands of Erich Hagenbach, her
trainer.
