The Island of Death - Germany's colonial heritage The concentration camp on Shark Island near
Lüderitz in the former colony of German South West Africa existed between 1905 and 1907 but has
been widely forgotten since . Thousands of Natives died in today's Namibia due to inhumane
conditions. Nowadays a campsite is located on the grounds of the former concentration camp.
Even in Germany the concentration camps during the colonial period are littleknown. Scarcely
anybody knew about the local conditions until the movie Measures of Men by Lars Kraume was
released in 2023 and has put a spotlight on this part of history. In 2019 the Island was
declared as a "National Heritage Site of Namibia". However quite recently - on 22 April 2023 -
a monument was inaugurated on the Island commemorating the numerous lost lives of Nama and
Herero. Thus the location has become a national memorial as well as a mark of the horrifying
German rule in today's Namibia. A collaboration project between the Landesmuseum Hannover and
the Institute for Geosciences from the University of Kiel followed the goal of remembering this
"sad fiasco". In addition to a collection of photos and other archive material archaeological
survey methods were used to study the grounds. This was the first time that such methods have
been employed to examine a concentration camp in Namibia. As a result a detailed map of the
concentration camp was created which confirms and completes the written sources. This book
focuses on the colonial period and - with the addition of extensive visual material - offers a
comprehensive view of the German politics in South West Africa at the beginning of the 20th
century.
