Saturn escaped from Berlin Zoo when it was bombed – but he didn’t belong to Hitler
An alligator who survived World War Two in Berlin and was rumoured – wrongly – to have belonged to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler has died in Moscow Zoo.
“Yesterday morning, our Mississippi alligator Saturn died of old age. He was about 84 years old – an extremely respectable age,” the zoo said.
Saturn was gifted to Berlin Zoo in 1936 soon after he was born in the US. He escaped the zoo being bombed in 1943.
British soldiers found him three years later and gave him to the Soviet Union.
How he spent the intervening years always remained a mystery, but since July 1946 the alligator has been a hit with visitors in Moscow.
“Moscow Zoo has had the honour of keeping Saturn for 74 years,” the zoo said in a statement.
“For us Saturn was an entire era, and that’s without the slightest exaggeration… He saw many of us when we were children. We hope that we did not disappoint him.”
