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

Items that would have been up for auction included letters written by prisoners in concentration camps, as well as Gestapo index cards and other perpetrator documents, The Associated Press reported, citing German news agency dpa. —Alex Nitzberg, FOXNews.com, 17 Nov. 2025

Roberto Benigni plays Guido, a Jewish Italian bookshop owner, sent to a concentration camp with his son. —NPR, 15 Nov. 2025

In the book’s first half, Frankl recounts his time as a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camps, describing not only his experiences but also his observations of others. —Big Think, 14 Nov. 2025

Though his sister Margot ended up in Switzerland (and later came to America), their parents died at Auschwitz concentration camp. —Brian Truitt, USA Today, 9 Nov. 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