concentration camp

noun

: a place where large numbers of people (such as prisoners of war, political prisoners, refugees, or the members of an ethnic or religious minority) are detained or confined under armed guard

—used especially in reference to camps created by the Nazis in World War II for the internment and persecution of Jews and other prisoners

The Nazi soldiers hauled [Mordechai] Strigler off to a concentration camp, and carved swastikas into his cheeks and forehead with a razor blade. Over the next five years, he was sent from one concentration camp or slave-labor camp to another.

—David Remnick

She ended up dying in a concentration camp, just a few months before she would have been liberated.

—Marilyn Reynolds

The V2 killed thousands of British civilians while 20,000 concentration camp inmates died as slave labourers during its manufacture in the closing stages of the second world war.

—Anna Tomforde et al.

see also death camp

Examples of concentration camp in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

After all, tourists from around the world pay to see sites like the Chernobyl in Ukraine, ground zero in New York City and former Nazi concentration camps in Poland. —Gabriella Rudy, NBC News, 12 Dec. 2024

The film, which includes a wrenching visit to the Majdanek concentration camp, is deftly peppered with insightful strands of Jewish history and culture. —Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times, 3 Dec. 2024

The Nazi doctor was known for performing cruel medical experiments on prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp. —Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 29 Nov. 2024

One 20-year client in his late ‘80s, who was also a concentration camp survivor, was ill in the hospital. —R.j. Shook, Forbes, 25 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1901, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

concentration camp

noun

: a camp where persons (as prisoners of war, political prisoners, or refugees) are detained