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

Marking her first ever recording for a TV series, Streisand has performed the end title anthem for the series about two young Jewish prisoners in the Nazi concentration camp who fall in love and commit themselves to survive the Holocaust together. —Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Apr. 2024

Minidoka National Historic Site Over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were forcibly removed from their homes and incarcerated without due process of law during World War II at concentration camps like Minidoka and Manzanar, pictured above. —Krista Simmons, Sunset Magazine, 15 Apr. 2024

The exhibit features some 700 artifacts from the Nazis’ largest concentration camp. —Leonardo Bevilacqua, The Christian Science Monitor, 10 Apr. 2024

Objects made of human remains were only produced at the Buchenwald concentration camp and no other German camps, Wagner said in the release. —Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 22 Mar. 2024

The chilling film is set just outside the walls of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, although Glazer makes the conscious decision to never depict violence or suffering of the Jewish people. —Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY, 21 Mar. 2024

The writer-director’s Zone of Interest depicts a Nazi officer's family living just outside the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust. —Brendan Le, Peoplemag, 11 Mar. 2024

So, by the time thousands of Americans of Japanese descent were imprisoned in remote concentration camps during World War II, baseball was already an integral part of many of their lives. —Jill Cowan, New York Times, 31 Mar. 2024

Six years later, as Kahneman was finishing first grade, the Nazis invaded France, and his family was forced to wear the yellow star that marked Jews for mass deportations to concentration camps. —Diksha Madhok, CNN, 28 Mar. 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