Shark Island was founded in 1795 off the coast of Luderitz,Namibia. Originally named Star Island, the land sat amidst immense winds and crashing waters of the Atlantic for a century before being connected to the mainland and used as a concentration camp by the Germans from 1904 to 1908.
During this time, or the Shark Island Concentration Camp—also known as Death Island because of the stories of its brutal conditions,minuscule food rations, and the death toll—was domestic to German physician, and Dr. Bofinger,who was said to conduct sinister racial 'science experiments.' Dr. Bofinger would conduct inhuman trials such as testing whether scurvy was contagious by injecting prisoners with opium and arsenic. More than 3000 skulls belonging to the Herero and Nama people were sent back to Germany for further experimentation.
The camp closed in 1907 and prisoners were transferred to an open area near Radford Bay where mortality rates eventually declined. Today, the harrowing peninsula is the site of a small memorial and plenty of open space for history buffs to travel camping.
Source: atlasobscura.com