What is "concentration camp"

1901, "compound for noncombatants in a war zone" (see concentration); a term for a controversial idea in the second Boer War (1899-1902), and the term emerged with a bad odor.\n\nThe concentration camp now definitely taken its place side by side with Black Hole of Calcutta as one of those of horror at which humanity will never cease shudder.

["The Review of Reviews," London, March 1902]

\nIt also was used 1902 in reference to then-current U.S. policies in the Philippines, and retroactively in reference to Spanish policies in Cuba during the insurrection there of 1896-98. The phrase was used in U.S. during the Spanish-American war, but in reference to designated rendezvous points for U.S. troops headed overseas. In reference to prisons for dissidents and minorities in Nazi Germany from 1934, in Soviet Russia from 1935.

n. 1 A camp where large numbers of persons—such as political prisoner, prisoner of war, refugee—are detained for the purpose of concentrating them in one place. 2 A camp or premises in which persons considered to be undesirable by those who control it are hidden away, mistreated, and even killed. 3 A situation wherein crowding and extremely harsh conditions take place.

1. n. a penal camp where political prisoners or prisoners of war are confined (usually under harsh conditions) [syn: stockade]

2. a situation characterized by crowding and extremely harsh conditions