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 group was later found, and Anne died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at age 15. —Janine Henni, People.com, 25 Feb. 2025

And nearly half of Americans surveyed couldn't name a single German concentration camp or ghetto. —Lee Cowan, CBS News, 23 Feb. 2025

Mendes is directing a BBC doc telling the story of two members of the British Army’s Film & Photographic Unit who accompanied the troops liberating the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. —Stewart Clarke, Deadline, 12 Feb. 2025

Eventually, Cohen, her sister and their father were transferred to other concentration camps, liberated and reunited. —Jesse Kirsch, NBC News, 2 Feb. 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