Shark Island (german: Haifischinsel) is a small
peninsula adjacent to the coastal city of
Lüderitz
Lüderitz is a town in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia. It lies on one of the least hospitable coasts in Africa. It is a port developed around Robert Harbour and Shark Island.
The town is known for its colonial architecture, includ ...
in
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
. Its area is about .
Formerly an island, it became a peninsula from 1906 on by the creation of a wide land connection that doubled its former size.
It had been formerly named Star Island by British Captain Alexander during his 1795 surveying expedition.
Concentration camp
The island was site of
Shark Island death camp. It was Namibia's first large-scale death camp. Close to 1,800 Nama prisoners arrived in September 1906, including
Cornelius Frederiks, one of the strongest Nama military leaders.
Shark Island has been called the "blueprint" for what the Nazis did later. Long before Hitler or the Nazis, the Germans shipped the Nama people to a remote location, where they performed experiments on the Nama and worked them to death.
References
External links
Travel guide
Peninsulas of Africa
Former islands
Lüderitz
Coasts of Namibia
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