‘American Zoo’ Reveals Nazi-Linked Animal Breeding Program at Catskill Game Farm

A new documentary examines the beloved zoo’s dark past. But don’t expect the filmmaker to tell you what to think.

This story originally appeared in the Times-Union by Sarah Trafton, Rick Marshall,Staff Writers

CATSKILL — Memories of the Catskill Game Farm tend to carry plenty of nostalgia for locals who visited the family-owned petting zoo during its 73 years in operation. But a new documentary turns a spotlight on a particularly dark corner of the tourist attraction’s history.

“American Zoo” had its U.S. premiere on June 4 at the Tribeca Film Festival. Directed by British filmmaker Tim Travers Hawkins, the film uses footage Travers Hawkins discovered in 2022 during a visit to the former zoo to explore its troubled past — including links to a Nazi-era animal-breeding program aimed at reviving extinct animal species.

“When I was first looking at the film, I absolutely had no idea it was going to lead me to a Nazi breeding program,” Travers Hawkins, a two-time Emmy-nominated filmmaker, said in an interview with the Times Union.

Opened in 1933 by German immigrant Roland Lindemann, the Catskill Game Farm became the nation’s first privately owned zoo in 1958. Over its seven decades of operation, the Game Farm’s menagerie grew to approximately 2,000 animals and 150 species.

In addition to being a major tourist attraction in the Catskills, the Game Farm had breeding programs to supply animals to other zoos — and, apparently, to bring animals back from extinction.

Through the found footage and numerous interviews with former gamekeepers and descendants, Travers Hawkins was able to piece together the history of the two main families at the core of the operation: the Lindemanns and the Hecks.

Image: The old Catskill Game Farm was once among the nation’s largest private zoos. (The Old Catskill Game Farm)