Alligator rumoured to have been Hitler’s dies in Moscow

MOSCOW: An

alligator

that many people believe once belonged to

Adolf Hitler

has died in the

Moscow Zoo

.


The zoo said the alligator, named

Saturn

, was about 84 years old when he died on Friday.

According to the zoo, Saturn was born in the United States and later sent to the Berlin Zoo, from which he escaped when the zoo was bombed in 1943. His whereabouts were unknown until 1946, when British soldiers found him and gave him to the Soviet Union, the zoo said.

"Almost immediately, the myth was born that he was allegedly in the collection of Hitler and not in the Berlin Zoo," the zoo said in a statement.

But, it noted, "animals are not involved in war and politics and it is absurd to blame them for human sins."