Shark Island () is a small

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

adjacent to the coastal city of Lüderitz in

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

. 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 Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

would later perpetrate in the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Long before

Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

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 {{Namibia-geo-stub