Aida the Elephant

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.