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Did You Know?

The concentration camp at Aus, Namibia, was established by German colonial forces during the Herero and Nama genocide (1904–1908). However, the specific site at Aus is more closely associated with World War I. In 1915, during the South African invasion of German South West Africa, the German military used the area around Aus as a prisoner-of-war camp for captured South African soldiers. The camp held approximately 1,500 prisoners, mostly from the Union of South Africa, under harsh conditions in the arid desert environment. The camp was part of the broader German strategy in the region, but it was not a concentration camp in the same sense as those used earlier against the Herero and Nama peoples. After the German surrender in July 1915, the camp was dismantled. Today, the site is marked by a memorial and is recognized as a historical landmark in Namibia, though little physical remains exist.

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