0:00:08 > 0:00:11After the Easter Tuesday Blitz of 1941,
0:00:11 > 0:00:16around 40,000 people in Belfast had to be put up in rest centres
0:00:16 > 0:00:20and some 70,000 had to be given meals every day
0:00:20 > 0:00:23in emergency feeding centres.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26Many citizens decided to leave the city altogether.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29The Belfast Telegraph reported...
0:00:29 > 0:00:32"Children clutched their favourite dollies.
0:00:32 > 0:00:36"Many brought with them their pets, from budgerigars to tabbies."
0:00:36 > 0:00:40On 16th April, Joseph McCann saw...
0:00:40 > 0:00:43"Streams of people moving up the Falls,
0:00:43 > 0:00:46"the women and children with mattresses and bedclothes
0:00:46 > 0:00:49"strapped to prams and handcarts."
0:00:49 > 0:00:52In south Belfast, Moya Woodside watched...
0:00:52 > 0:00:57"..an exodus on foot, trams, lorries, trailers, cattle floats,
0:00:57 > 0:01:01"bicycles, delivery vans, anything that would move was utilised.
0:01:01 > 0:01:06"Hundreds were waiting at bus stops, anxiety on every face."
0:01:06 > 0:01:09This mass migration from Belfast brought into the open
0:01:09 > 0:01:14the extreme deprivation of those now bombed out of congested streets,
0:01:14 > 0:01:18who had endured two decades of unemployment and neglect.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21Emma Duffin, a volunteer nurse, was shocked by...
0:01:21 > 0:01:24"..the incredible dirt of the people,
0:01:24 > 0:01:28"of children crawling with lice, not even house-trained."
0:01:28 > 0:01:30Moya Woodside recorded that
0:01:30 > 0:01:32the 11 evacuees staying with her mother were...
0:01:32 > 0:01:36"..all filthy. They refuse all food except tea and bread.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39"The children have made puddles all over the floor."
0:01:39 > 0:01:43Several had tuberculosis and two had severe scalp infections.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47Moya's sister, living 30 miles from Belfast, complained of...
0:01:47 > 0:01:51"..the appalling influx from the slums the day after the raid.
0:01:51 > 0:01:56"The whole town is horrified by the filth of these evacuees
0:01:56 > 0:01:59"and by their filthy habits and take-it-for-granted attitude.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02"The smell is awful!
0:02:02 > 0:02:05"They don't even use the lavatory, they just...
0:02:05 > 0:02:09"do it on the floor, grown-ups and children!"
0:02:09 > 0:02:13The official response to the crisis was distinctly unimpressive
0:02:13 > 0:02:16by comparison with that on the other side of the Irish Sea.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19One reaction, by the Ministry of Public Security,
0:02:19 > 0:02:24to the desperate situation was to issue this order on 19th April.
0:02:24 > 0:02:29"Destroy all dangerous animals at the zoo immediately."
0:02:29 > 0:02:33Two RUC marksmen were sent to Bellevue Zoo.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36The Belfast Telegraph reported that the head keeper, Dick Foster...
0:02:36 > 0:02:39"..stood by with tears streaming down his face
0:02:39 > 0:02:42"as the executioners proceeded from cage to cage
0:02:42 > 0:02:47"and dispatched the animals, 33 in number, and a vulture."