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

The movie, directed by Ellen Kuras, mainly takes place during World War II when Miller was on the front lines, taking some of the most iconic photos to emerge from the Blitz, the liberation of Paris, and the Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps. —Esther Zuckerman, TIME, 27 Sep. 2024

The recording was made on April 16, 1945, at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, one day after British troops liberated the site. —Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 9 Aug. 2024

In the movie, the supervillain Apocalypse finds Magneto and takes him to the Auschwitz concentration camp, reminding him of how horrific humans can be. —Keith Langston, Peoplemag, 27 July 2024

Shot in Sweden in 1972, the film told the tale of a clown taken to a concentration camp and tasked with walking children to gas chambers. —Rafa Sales Ross, Variety, 30 Aug. 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