Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Ghost Zoo--Belle Isle Zoo Detroit, Mich.











Ghost Zoo--Belle Isle Zoo Detroit, Mich.


 1907


1911


1912


1940

Ghost Zoo--Belle Isle Children's Zoo Detroit, Mich.





1960




1968

Ghost Zoo--Belle Isle Childrens Zoo Detroit, Mich.








 1947


1951


1956


Ghost Zoo--Buchenwald Weimar, Germany


In 1938, Camp Commander Karl Koch had a zoo built in the direct vicinity of the entrance area to the inmates’ camp. It was financed with “donations” extorted from the inmates themselves. The highlight of the “Buchenwald Zoological Garden”, as it was officially designated, was a bear pit with four brown bears and 5 monkeys.  There was also an elaborate falconry in another area outside the camp where the SS kept birds of prey.   As stated in a command-staff order, the zoo was intended as a means of offering the SS men “distraction and amusement”.  The zoo was accessible not only to the SS and their families but also to civilian workers from Weimar employed in the factories in the camp vicinity. SS postcards advertised for the zoo. 












From Scrapbookpages:

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

'Along the lines of spending upwards of a million dollars to rescue "one" elephant while half the world's children are starving:'

Although Buchenwald was technically not an extermination camp, it was a site of an extraordinary number of deaths.  A primary cause of death was illness due to harsh camp conditions, with starvation most prevalent.  Malnourished and suffering from disease, many were literally "worked to death" under the Vernichtung durch Arbeit policy(extermination through labor).   Many inmates died as a result of  human experimentation, but as we see above the good Commandant Koch made damn sure the deer were not tormented or treated harshly!!!!!!!

Ghost Zoo--Idora Park Oakland, Calif.












Idora Park was a walled-in park that had a zoo, an ostrich farm, animal shows, a dance hall, racetrack, a huge outdoor amphitheater, a Japanese garden, bear grotto and a main street called the Glad Way, Penny Arcade, photo gallery and shooting gallery.  Idora Park was torn down in 1924.

Ghost Zoo--McCulloch Park Muncie, Indiana


Ghost Zoo--Manito Park Spokane, Wash.


The grand entrance to Manito Park was taken away in 1909. It was originally an arch that had colored ivy trained into the words “SEE SPOKANE SHINE.”




1910

Manito Park had many fun attractions such as the zoo, the peanut shack (park bench café), Duncan gardens, Gaiser conservatory, duck pond, playground, and owl castle. The zoo took up one third of Manito’s 80 acres. The zoo was the main attraction. The bears were the most popular of what the zoo had to offer. Manito’s zoo contained many animals such as ostriches, kangaroos, buffalo, elk, deer, muskrat, beaver, monkeys, polar, black and grizzly bears. There were various birds and waterfowl such as ducks and geese.

One of the things that many people believed led to the closing of the zoo was when a little girl was feeding one of the polar bears. The bear that took the food accidentally drew blood. The other bear was attracted to the blood. It came in and bit the girl’s arm. The workers were so terrified that in an effort to pull the girl away, her arm got ripped right off. The girl claimed that it was her fault and that the bear should be left alone. The zoo stayed open for about another 8 years for a total of about 3 decades. It had to close when the Great Depression set in because they didn't have enough money to feed the animals.

Ghost Zoo--Chilhowee Park, Knoxville, Tenn.


Chilhowee Park Bear den  1912