The old Zoo was located adjacent to the former main railway station ‘Delftsche Poort’, which was targeted during the air raid in May 1940. The footage from 17 November 1939 shows first the members only entrance of the old Zoo and several animals in their cages – a tiger, several monkeys and a lion. Next, the first animal shelters in the old Zoo are being torn down, after which an aerial view shows the Zoo with the demolished buildings, while construction work is ongoing at the new site in the Blijdorp district of Rotterdam.

Despite the ongoing work on the new Zoo and relocation of the animals, the bombing of Rotterdam in the beginning of WWII in May 1940 killed most of the animals in the buildings that still existed. Fortunately, construction work of the new Zoo continued, and the footage of 9 December 1940 shows ‘Diergaarde Blijdorp’ in an almost completed state. It is the first zoo ever that was completely designed from scratch by one architect, in this case Sybold van Ravesteyn. You’ll see the famous Riviera Hall, that together with many other buildings later became listed as national protected architectonic sites – which obstructs many of the necessary modernisations the Zoo management wants to establish nowadays. The watchtower that was connected to the Riviera Hall, however, was demolished in 1972, because it became a threat to the public when it started to deteriorate and was much to expensive to renovate.

(Source: Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (http://www.openbeelden.nl/users/beeldengeluid), Iets grootsch & buitengewoons – 150 jaar Rotterdamse Diergaarde (ed. Adriaan Gerritsen / Blijdorp), 2007)