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

Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the age of 15, months before the end of the war. —Jill Lawless, Chicago Tribune, 6 Jan. 2026

The Schloss family was betrayed and sent to concentration camps in 1944. —Janine Henni, PEOPLE, 5 Jan. 2026

Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the age of 15, months before the end of the war. —CBS News, 5 Jan. 2026

Just like the Nazis tried to hide sites in Germany during World War II, those concentration camps that ended up mass murdering six million Jews, this is no different, and the public does not know what’s really happening. —Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 1 Jan. 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