Loet vanderveen biography of barack

By Bonnie Gangelhoff

When sculptor Loet Vanderveen was growing up in the Netherlands, he was a frequent visitor to the Rotterdam Zoo.

The staff allowed the eager youngster to enter the monkey cages to feed and pet the primates. At night, because Vanderveen’s family lived close to the zoo, the boy could hear the lions roar from their cages.

The regular forays to the zoo might have continued had World War II not intervened and abruptly changed the tenor of everyday life for Vanderveen.

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Indeed, little could have prepared him for the fate that would befall his country and his beloved animals at the Rotterdam Zoo.

In 1941, on the eve of an impending German bombardment, Dutch soldiers shot and killed the zoo’s predatory animals.

Officials took the cautionary measure because they feared the lions and tigers would threaten citizens if they got loose. During the bombing Vanderveen and his family took shelter in a neighbor’s cellar.