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Episode 29: Growing Up at the Berlin Zoo

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Elephant gate at the Berlin Zoo in 1938. Courtesy of Archiv Zoologischer Garten Berlin (AZGB), all rights reserved
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Marianne Salinger and a friend at the Berlin Zoo Petting Zoo around 1937. Marianne Salinger Collection Addenda, AR 25637.
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Map of the Berlin Zoo. Courtesy of Archiv Zoologischer Garten Berlin (AZGB), all rights reserved

In the late 1930s, one of the few places in Berlin that still allowed Jewish visitors was the Zoological Garden, which was established with the support of many Jewish donors. As antisemitic laws took over elsewhere, the Zoo remained a space for community and childhood joy. Eventually, however, even the Zoo would betray the Jews. Sixty years later, one man with fond memories of the zoo realized that an injustice had occurred against his family, and did everything he could to right the wrongs of the past.

The James Cohn Collection in the LBI archives documents his father Dr. Werner Cohn’s battle for restitution of his family’s share in the Berlin Zoo, including correspondence with Zoo officials in 2000. The Papers of Gerald M. Friedman, a former Trustee of the LBI, also document his family’s efforts dating back to the 1960s to recover Zoo shares. They include copies of the entire family’s photographic Zoo membership cards.

Learn more at lbi.org/zoo

Exile is a production of the Leo Baeck Institute, New York and Antica Productions. It’s narrated by Joshua Malina.

This episode was written by Joanne O’Sullivan.

Our executive producers are Laura Regehr and Stuart Coxe.

Our producer is Emily Morantz.

Research and translation by Isabella Kempf.

Voice acting by Cyrus Lane and Adi Braun.

Sound design and audio mix by Philip Wilson.

Theme music by Oliver Wickham.

This episode of Exile is made possible in part by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Finance and the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future.

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