concentration camp

[ kon-suhn-trey-shuhn kamp ]

noun

1. a guarded compound for the mass detention without hearings or the imprisonment without trial of civilians, as refugees, members of ethnic minorities, political opponents, etc.
2. a Nazi prison camp or death camp prior to and during World War II.

concentration camp

noun

1. a guarded prison camp in which nonmilitary prisoners are held, esp one of those in Nazi Germany in which millions were exterminated

concentration camp

1. A place for assembling and confining political prisoners and enemies of a nation. Concentration camps are particularly associated with the rule of the Nazis in Germany , who used them to confine millions of Jews (see also Jews ) as a group to be purged from the German nation. Communists , Gypsies , homosexuals, and other persons considered undesirable according to Nazi principles, or who opposed the government, were also placed in concentration camps and eventually executed in large groups. ( See Holocaust .)

Word History and Origins

Origin of concentration camp¹

First recorded in 1900–05, applied originally to camps where noncombatants were placed during the Boer War

Example Sentences

“It’s not going to be a mass sweep of neighborhoods. It’s not going to be building concentration camps,” Tom Homan, a former acting director of ICE under Trump, said last month on CBS’ “60 Minutes.”

From Los Angeles Times

Trump has publicly fantasized about a “bloody story” of mass deportations and concentration camps targeting Black and brown “illegal immigrants.”

From Salon

Now he is invoking the Alien Enemies Act that was used to put Japanese Americans in concentration camps.

From Salon

He recently held a rally in Aurora, Colorado where he pledged an even more aggressive deportation and concentration camp plan by invoking the Alien Enemies Act.

From Salon

Most notably there will be more state violence, violence from private militia groups and other violence including mass deportations and promised detention or concentration camps.

From Salon

Related Words

• gas chamber
• gulag
• internment camp
• prison camp