Five Questions with John M. Kinder, author of “World War Zoos: Humans and Other Animals in the Deadliest Conflict of the Modern Age”
As Europe lurched into war in 1939, zookeepers started killing their animals. On September 1, as German forces invaded Poland, Warsaw began with its reptiles. Two days later, workers at the London Zoo launched a similar spree, dispatching six alligators, seven iguanas, sixteen southern anacondas, six Indian fruit bats, a fishing cat, a binturong, a Siberian tiger, five magpies, an Alexandrine parakeet, two bullfrogs, three lion cubs, a cheetah, four wolves, and a manatee over the next few months. Zoos worldwide did the same. The reasons were many, but the pattern was clear: The war that was about to kill so many people started by killing so many animals. Why? And how did zoos, nevertheless, not just survive the war but play a key role in how people did, too?
A harrowing yet surprisingly uplifting chronicle, John M. Kinder’s World War Zoos traces how zoos survived the deadliest decades of global history, from the Great Depression, through the terrors of World War II, to the dawn of the Cold War. More than anything before or since, World War II represented an existential threat to the world’s zoological institutions. Some zoos were bombed; others bore the indignities of foreign occupation. Even zoos that were spared had to wrestle with questions rarely asked in public: What should they do when supplies ran low? Which animals should be killed to protect the lives of others? And how could zoos justify keeping dangerous animals that might escape and run wild during an aerial attack?
In this post, we speak with John M. Kinder about what inspired him to research what happened to zoos during World War II and how zoos can help us make sense of humans’ treatment of the natural world.
How did you become interested in researching the effects of World War II on zoos across the globe? What inspired you to write a book about zoos from that time period?
The impetus for the book came from a visit to the Berlin Zoo in the late 1990s. At the time, there was a small photo memorial showing the destruction of the zoo’s pachyderm house after an Allied bombing raid. The image of an elephant’s foot peeking out of the rubble is burned in my brain to this day. Still, something bothered me; the memorial felt manipulative and incomplete—as if Germany (or the zoo itself) had no role in the animals’ fate. That feeling gnawed at me for, well, decades, and this book is the result. It’s my attempt to tell the story of what happened to zoos during World War II: how they prepared, how they suffered, how they survived, and how they recovered.
How did World War II affect the lives of zoo animals? Could you discuss what happens to zoo animals during wartime today?
The war affected zoo animals in every way imaginable. It limited zoos’ access to certain foods, which meant that many animals were forced to subsist on “patriotic”—that is, substitute—diets. (Think cat meat dipped in cod liver oil instead of fresh fish.) The war deprived zoos of medicine, fuel, and workers, all of which contributed to animal illness and early death. Zoo animals were traumatized by aerial attacks, looted by invading armies, eaten by hungry soldiers, and “sacrificed” (killed) in the name of wartime austerity, sometimes by the very people responsible for their care. Zoo animals were appropriated by propagandists on all sides of the conflict (Joseph Goebbels, among them) to powerful effect. They also experienced a great deal of empathy and kindness from ordinary people who, for whatever reason, felt obliged to help them.
We see a similar sense of obligation in places like Ukraine and Gaza, where people continue to risk their lives to rescue zoo animals from active warzones. I am moved beyond words by such stories. And yet, I’m reminded of the many ways in which zoo animals are made expendable during wartime—because they are deemed too expensive, because critics worry about their possible escape, or because the public decides zoo animals aren’t worth the hassle.
These sorts of calculations took place during World War II and, sadly, they are still taking place today.
While you were researching and writing World War Zoos, what did you learn that surprised you the most?
So many things, but for brevity’s sake, I’ll highlight two. I was surprised to learn that Japanese American internees erected a petting zoo at Heart Mountain Relocation Center. In fact, I was lucky enough to email with several camp survivors, who explained that the main “zookeeper” eventually joined the military and helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp. I was equally surprised to learn about how Artis (the Amsterdam Zoo) served as a hub of anti-Nazi activity throughout the German occupation. We’re talking genuine courage!
Where will your research and writing take you next?
My colleague, Jennifer Murray, and I edited a volume called They Are Dead and Yet They Live: Civil War Memories in a Polarized America, which will be published in February 2026. Beyond that, I’m focused on two projects, both of which are set primarily in the southern United States. The first is a short volume on alligators as part of Reaktion Books’ ‘Animals’ series. I’ve already spent several days trying to photograph gators in the Okefenokee Swamp with mixed results. Much like World War Zoos, the alligator book reflects my lifelong fascination with humans’ complicated, and often tragic, relationship with the animal world.
The second project is more ambitious. It’s a true crime history about a murder that took place in World War II Mississippi. I’ve been busy touring jail cells, tramping through graveyards, interviewing medical experts, and collecting ghost stories—every murder has a ghost story, often more than one! This project is an exciting change of pace from my earlier books. At the same time, I’m asking some familiar questions: How does modern war leave its mark on the home front? And what happens when the reality of war diverges from patriotic myth?
What do you most hope readers will take away from your book?
I want them to understand the many ways World War II affected zoos and the animals they held. Just as important, I want to encourage readers to take zoos seriously—as institutions, sure, but also as places for making sense of human attitudes toward the natural world. We’re facing a lot of problems right now—climate change, species extinction, ecological collapse. Zoos might very well play a role in addressing these issues, but only if we’re willing to demand more from them. Learning how zoos reacted to past crises, such as World War II, can help us plan for future ones.
John M. Kinder is director of American Studies and professor of history at Oklahoma State University. He is the author of Paying with Their Bodies: American War and the Problem of the Disabled Veteran, published by the University of Chicago Press, and coeditor of Service Denied: Marginalized Veterans in Modern American History.
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