Shark Island concentration camp

Shark Island or "Death Island" was one of five concentration camps in German South West Africa. It was located on Shark Island off Lüderitz, in the far south-west of the territory which today is Namibia. It was used by the German Empire during the Herero and Nama genocide of 1904–08. Between 1,032 and 3,000 Herero and Nama men, women, and children died in the camp between March 1905 and its closing in April 1907.

Background

On 12 January 1904, the Herero people rebelled against German colonial rule under the leadership of Samuel Maharero. Origins of the Herero revolt date back to the 1890s when tribes settled in Namibia came under pressure from the growing number of German settlers wanting their land, cattle, and labor. Factors such as loss of property, increasing debt in an attempt to resettle lost herds, low wages on white-owned farms, and racial inequalities only intensified the hostility between the Herero and the Germans.

When the Herero rebelled, they killed over 100 German settlers near the town of Okahandja. Over 15,000 German reinforcements under the command of Lothar von Trotha defeated the Herero force at the Waterberg River in August 1904.

Two months later, the Nama people, under the command of Hendrik Witbooi, broke out in a similar rebellion against German colonists. Traditional rivalries prevented the Herero and Nama from joining; however, both groups continued fighting guerrilla warfare against the German colonial forces.

Following the abandonment of Lothar von Trotha's policy of exterminating Herero within the borders of German South West Africa (by poisoning them or denying them access to water sources in the desert), the colonial authorities adopted a policy of sweeping the bush clear of Herero – both civilians and rebels – and removing them, either voluntarily or by force, to concentration camps.

Operation

Establishment

Although there are records of Herero prisoners-of-war being held in Lüderitz Bay as early as 1904, the first references to a camp at Shark Island and the transfer of large numbers of Herero prisoners from Keetmanshoop are in March 1905.

From early on, large numbers of Herero died in the camp, with 59 men, 59 women and 73 children reportedly dying by late May 1905. Despite this high initial rate of mortality on the island which, with its cold climate, was unsuitable for habitation, particularly for people used to the dry, arid climate of the veld, the German authorities continued to transfer people from the interior to the island, ostensibly because of a lack of food in the interior, but also because they wished to use the prisoners as labour in constructing a railway connecting Lüderitz with Aus.

Arrival of the Nama

Whilst the Germans initially followed a policy of sending people from the south to concentration camps in the north, and vice versa, meaning that Nama prisoners mostly went to concentration camps around the city of Windhoek, by mid-1906 Germans in Windhoek were becoming increasingly concerned about the presence of so many prisoners in their city.

In response to these concerns, in August 1906 the Germans began to transfer Nama prisoners to Shark Island, sending them by cattle-car to Swakopmund and then by sea to Lüderitz. The Nama leader, Samuel Isaak, protested this, saying that their transfer to Lüderitz had not been part of the agreement under which they had surrendered to the Germans, however, the Germans ignored these protests. By late 1906, 2,000 Nama were held prisoner on the island.

Closing The decision to close the camp was made by Major Ludwig von Estorff, the new commander of the Schutztruppe of German South West Africa who had signed the agreement under which the Witbooi (a Nama tribe) had surrendered to the Germans, after a visit to the camp in early 1907. After the closing of the camp, prisoners were transferred to an open area near Radford Bay. Whilst mortality rates initially remained high in the new camp, they eventually declined.

Living conditions

Conditions at the camp

Word quickly spread among the Herero of the conditions at the camp, with prisoners in other parts of German South West Africa reportedly committing suicide rather than be deported to Lüderitz due to the stories of harsh conditions there in late 1905. Due to the camp's reputation, detainees were not told where they were being sent to reduce the chance of revolt or escape. The Cape Argus, a South African newspaper, also ran stories describing terrible conditions at the camp in late September 1905. One transport rider, who was described as having been employed at the camp in early 1905, was quoted as saying:

August Kuhlmann was one of the first civilians to visit the camp. What he witnessed shocked him as he described in September 1905:A woman, who was so weak from illness that she could not stand, crawled to some of the other prisoners to beg for water. The overseer fired five shots at her. Two shots hit her: one in the thigh, the other smashing her forearm... In the night she died.

Many cases of rape of prisoners by Germans were reported at the camp. Although some of these cases did result in the perpetrator being successfully punished where a "white champion" took up the victim's cause, the majority of cases went unpunished.

Other factors such as minimal food rations, uncontrolled diseases, and maltreatment led to high mortality rates. Prisoners typically received a handful of uncooked rice. Diseases such as typhoid spread quickly. Prisoners were concentrated in large, unsanitary living quarters with negligible medical attention. Beatings occurred frequently as the German officials often used the sjambok to force prisoners to work.

Extreme Climate, Geography & Substandard Housing Shark Island is a barren, rocky peninsula flanked by the Namib Desert and the icy Atlantic Ocean, characterized by gale-force winds, bitter cold night temperatures, dense coastal fog, and a complete lack of natural freshwater. German colonial authorities intentionally placed the camp at the far windswept tip of the island to weaponize the severe environmental elements directly against the prisoners. Inmates were crammed into small zones fenced in by barbed wire or thorn bushes. Prisoners were forced to construct their own makeshift dwellings (pontoks) out of canvas, simple blankets, or military tents, which provided virtually no protection against freezing temperatures, ocean winds, and sea spray.

Severe Starvation & Unnatural Diet Rations were minimal, consisting only of a daily allowance of a handful of raw, uncooked rice, salt, and water. Rice was an unfamiliar foodstuff to the indigenous OvaHerero and Nama populations. This nutrient-deficient, uncommon diet caused widespread digestive illness, emaciation, severe bowel disease, and fatal scurvy (vitamin C deficiency, which left distinct pathognomonic traces on skeletal remains).

Exhausting Forced labour

The prisoners held on Shark Island were used as forced labour throughout the camp's existence. This labour was made available by the German army Etappen Kommando for use by private companies throughout the Lüderitz area, working on infrastructure projects such as railway construction, the building of the harbour, serving the white settlers, and flattening and levelling Shark Island through the use of explosives. Transport riders recorded women carrying heavy grain sacks or stretchers while nursing infants on their backs, being continuously beaten with leather whips (sjamboks) by soldiers when they collapsed. This highly dangerous and physical work inevitably led to large-scale sickness and death amongst the prisoners, with one German technician complaining that the 1,600-strong Nama workforce had shrunk to a strength of only 30–40 available for work due to 7–8 deaths occurring daily by late 1906. The policy of forced labour officially ended when prisoner-of-war status for the Herero and Nama was revoked on 1 April 1908, although Herero and Nama continued to labour on colonial projects after this.

Uncontrolled Disease & Total Medical Neglect Overcrowding, unhygienic living quarters, inadequate clothing, and a near-total lack of medical attention allowed diseases like typhoid, scurvy, and severe bowel infections to spread uncontrollably.

Freezing ocean winds combined with wet, inadequate clothing and malnutrition resulted in high death tolls from hyperthermia and exposure.

Physical Abuse, Torture & Executions Guards routinely whipped prisoners with the sjambok with full force. Inmates faced physical torture, poisoning, and widespread sexual violence and rape by soldiers. Public executions were performed on the eastern side of the island facing Lüderitz in full view of the town, near an execution room located where the lighthouse stands today.

Medical Exploitation & Mutilation of Human Remains At Field Hospital XII on the island, by a research was conducted by the doctor Eugen Fischer, later a prominent Nazi scientist (military doctors such as Stabsarzt Dr. Hugo Bofinger) conducted autopsies on deceased prisoners, preserving organs, brains, and severed heads in formalin-filled metal canisters to send to universities in Berlin for "racial-anthropological" research.

Captive female prisoners were forced to boil heads of their dead inmates (some of whom may have been their relatives or acquaintances) and use glass shards or tools to scrape the flesh off the severed heads of dead inmates (including Nama Captain Cornelius Fredericks) before the skulls were shipped to German universities.The Kaiser's Holocaust: Germany's Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial Roots of Nazis - p. 224

Casper Erichsen, David Olusoga - 2010 This work was performed at the camp at Swakopmund, and some of these experiments were conducted by the German doctors to develop their race theories about the evolutionary proximity of Indigenous Africans to apes.

Mortality & Disposal of Bodies Mortality rates ranged between 70% and over 80% of all prisoners sent to Shark Island, claiming thousands of lives. Death rates reached between 12 and 20+ people per day. Cartloads of bodies were taken to the back beach at low tide and buried in shallow sand, allowing the rising tide to sweep the bodies out as food for sharks, or thrown directly into harbour waters. Other victims were carried on stretchers by fellow inmates to mainland beaches near Radford Bay and buried in shallow individual and mass graves.

Death toll

The precise number of deaths at the camp is unknown. A report by the German Imperial Colonial Office estimated a death toll of 7,682 Herero and 2,000 Nama across all of the camps in German South West Africa, of which a significant portion died at Shark Island. A military official at the camp estimated that 1,032 out of the 1,795 prisoners held at the camp in September 1906 had since died, and ultimately only 245 of these prisoners survived. In December 1906, an average of 8.5 prisoners died per day. By March 1907, according to records, 1,203 Nama prisoners had died on the island. The overall figure for deaths at the camp has been estimated to be as high as 3,000. Combined with deaths amongst prisoners held elsewhere in Lüderitz Bay, the total may well exceed 4,000.

The vast majority of these prisoners died through preventable diseases such as typhoid and scurvy, exacerbated by malnutrition, over-work, and the unsanitary conditions in the camps.

Shark Island concentration camp

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