Hart Island: This is a 53 hectare island for forgotten souls. The uninhabited piece of land belongs to the New York borough Bronx. During the Civil War (1861 to 1865), the island served as a training camp for the northern states, later as a prisoner of war camp, then as a sanatorium for tuberculosis sufferers. The buildings are left to decay – the rest of the land is in decline.
Today exists Hart Island namely de facto from a poor cemetery, Potters’s Field. The sources vary, but around a million people are said to have been buried there: homeless people, babies, probably several thousand HIV victims and amputated body parts.
A ferry with corpses still arrives every week: around 1,200 dead are said to be buried in pine coffins on the island every year. The graves are usually excavated by prisoners. A general entry ban applies to the island – this also applies to relatives of the dead. Burials take place without ceremony, anonymously.
Resting place for corona deaths
Because of the high death toll in New York due to the Covid-19 crisis Hart Island chosen as one of those places where the city buries corpses, at least temporarily. The morgues, refrigerated trucks and hospitals in New York are full.
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