Many of the buildings in Namibia today were built by the slave labour of prisoners. The conditions in the concentration camps were so bad that it was estimated that half of all the prisoners in the camps died there.The 15,000 Herero and Namaqua (mainly women and children and very few men) who survived, were gathered by the Germans and led to concentration camps. One of these was Shark Island Concentration Camp. The prisoners were forced into hard labour as slaves for German businesses. They were given some rice for their efforts, but nothing more. Many died as a result of the poor diet and severely exhaustive work. Concentration camps were established in Swakopmund, Karibib, Windhoek, Okahandja, Luderitz and perhaps most infamously, Shark Island.
