Concentration camp

A concentration camp is a large detention center created for political opponents, aliens, specific ethnic or religious groups, civilians of a critical war-zone, or other groups of people, often during a war. The term refers to situations where the internees are persons selected for their conformance to broad criteria without judicial process, rather than having been judged as individuals. Camps for prisoners of war are usually considered separately from this category, although informally (and in some other languages) they may also be called concentration camps. The word "concentration" indicates a regional concentration, but it also implies the crowded, and often unhealthy, state of the facilities.

Related Topics:
War - Judicial - Camps for prisoners of war

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. defines concentration camp as:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:a camp where non-combatants of a district are accommodated, such as those instituted by Lord Kitchener during the South African war of 1899-1902; one for the internment of political prisoners, foreign nationals, etc., esp. as organized by the Nazi regime in Germany before and during the war of 1939-45

Related Topics:
Lord Kitchener - South African war

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Until Nazi Germany set up camps whose objective was to either put political opponents into forced labor, or to kill them, the concentration camps to conceal their true purpose, the term was used relatively literally to mean simply a camp where a group of prisoners was concentrated, although conditions may have been less than ideal. Since then, no government or organization has set up camps by that particular name -- new terms being invented as euphemisms: internment camps, resettlement camps, etc.

Related Topics:
Nazi Germany - Internment camps

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Since the nature of Germany's so-called "concentration camps" became known (see below), the term is sometimes used propagandistically, with greater or lesser justification, to imply that a camp is designed to exterminate, rather than merely to concentrate, its inmates. For example, many of the slave-labor concentration camps were in fact used by major German corporate manufacturers (some still in existence) as cheap or free sources of factory labor.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The term is often not applied to Prisoner of war camps such as Andersonville during the American Civil War. Although large numbers of prisoners were concentrated there in horrific conditions from 1863 to 1865, and perhaps a quarter of them died, the prisoners were combatants and the camp is generally classified as a POW camp.

Related Topics:
Prisoner of war - Andersonville - American Civil War - 1863 - 1865

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Early civilisations such as the Assyrians used forced resettlement of populations as a means of controlling territory, but it was not until much later that records exist of groups of civilians being concentrated into large prison camps.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the English-speaking world, the term "concentration camp" was first used to describe camps operated by the British in South Africa during the 1899-1902 Second Boer War. Originally conceived as a form of humanitarian aid to the families whose farms had been destroyed in the fighting, the camps were later used to confine and control large numbers of civilians in areas of Boer guerilla activity. Tens of thousands of Boer civilians, and black workers from their farms, died as a result of diseases developed due to overcrowding, inadequate diets and poor sanitation. The term concentration camp was coined at this time to signify the "concentration" of a large number of people in one place, and was used to describe both the camps in South Africa and those established by the Spanish to support a similar anti-insurgency campaign in Cuba at roughly the same time (see below).

Related Topics:
British - South Africa - 1899 - 1902 - Boer War - Boer - Cuba

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Over the course of the twentieth century, the arbitrary internment of civilians by the authority of the state became more common and reached a climax with the practice of genocide in the death camps of the Nazi regime in Germany, and with the Gulag system of forced labor camps of the Soviet Union. As a result of this trend, the term concentration camp carries many of the connotations of extermination camp and is sometimes used synonymously. In technical discussion, however, it is important to understand that a concentration camp is not, by definition, always a Nazi-style death-camp.

Related Topics:
Internment - Genocide - Death camp - Nazi - Gulag - Forced labor camp - Soviet Union

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

What follows is a brief history of concentration camps established by various countries and regimes.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~