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

Sounds like families being separated to go to concentration camps. —Chicago Tribune, 26 June 2025

He was hired as a war crimes investigator and visited concentration camps during the World War II liberation to document Nazi crimes. —Lois K. Solomon, Sun Sentinel, 10 June 2025

Many of the American soldiers who liberated the concentration camps were stunned that an advanced country like Germany could turn so barbaric. —John Blake, CNN Money, 26 May 2025

The film tells a story of survival, resistance and sorority in the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp – the only one of its kind – during the final days of World War II. —Leo Barraclough, Variety, 13 May 2025

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