0/5

Dateline: Sept 16

Dateline reports on New York's Hart Island: the site of a mass grave containing more than a million bodies.

2014-09-15_1801This week, Dateline‘s Aaron Thomas reports on New York’s mysterious Hart Island: the site of a mass grave containing more than a million bodies, just a short boat ride from Manhattan.

For more than a century, Hart Island – in New York’s East River – has been used as a state-funded burial site for unidentified homeless people and still-born infants.

In a macabre twist, the burials are carried out by prisoners from the nearby Riker’s Island jail.

The mass grave – the largest tax-funded cemetery in the world – now contains more than a million bodies.

But unlike other cemeteries, Hart Island is run by the prison’s department and is strictly off limits to visitors.

Mystery surrounds the identity of those buried there. Even if a family is able to establish that this secretive site is the last resting place of their loved one, they won’t be allowed to access the grave site.

On Tuesday’s Dateline, reporter Aaron Thomas follows a group of courageous women whose still-born babies are buried on Hart Island as they fight for the right to visit their children’s grave.

Tuesday, September 16, at 9.30pm on SBS ONE.

Corrected.

3 Responses

  1. As they are unidentified bodies buried in mass graves that are recycled as they run out of room, there is not a lot to visit. If a body is identified it can be disinterred and reburied.

    The wikipedia says people have been granted permission to visit and there was an open day once.

    US laws prevent slavery, so the pay prisoners $0.15 -1.00/hr to do work. Saves the state money but also reduces employment.

  2. Did SBS supply you with that photo David?
    Because its the wrong Hart Island. The pic above is Boldt Castle, Hart Island in St Lawrence River boarding Canada. The Hart island the documentary is about is in East River Bronx.

Leave a Reply