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 men toured the concentration camps with teenagers, detailing their personal experiences of loss and terror. —Steven Yablonski, CBS News, 1 May 2026

Heppner lost several family members to concentration camps, including his maternal grandfather, who was murdered in Sobibor in occupied Poland with two brothers. —Lois K. Solomon, Sun Sentinel, 30 Apr. 2026

In 1945, during World War II, American soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp in Nazi Germany. —Chicago Tribune, 29 Apr. 2026

Edith Eger, a La Jolla resident who as a teenager survived the Auschwitz concentration camp and others during World War II and went on to be a clinical psychologist and author of books sharing lessons from the Holocaust, died April 27 at age 98. —La Jolla Light, San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1901, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for concentration camp

• amp
• champ
• clamp
• cramp
• damp
• gamp
• lamp
• ramp
• samp
• scamp
• stamp
• tamp

Kids Definition

concentration camp

noun

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