death camp

Noun

death camp (plural death camps)

1. A camp destined to cause the death of its inmates.
   1. Such a camp built during the Holocaust by the Nazis to kill mainly Jews, generally by means of gassing.
2. A prison camp in which a large number of prisoners die, ascribed to various reasion such as starvation, disease, brutality, and neglect, but not necessarily thought to be intentional.
   • Included in this figure, since the fall of South Vietnam in 1975, are over 250,000 boat people and 250,000 other civilians who were either ruthlessly murdered outright or who perished in communist death camps set up to "re-educate" non-communists.2004, Jeffrey F. Addicott, Terrorism Law: The Rule of Law and the War on Terror, 2nd edition, page 117
   • Three years after Stalin's death, with ghostly figures returning to Moscow and Leningrad from Stalin's death camps, the leaders in the Kremlin agreed that Stalin's ghost had to be laid to rest if they were to get on with the reforms that would allow them to stay in power.2007, John P. C. Matthews, Explosion: The Hungarian Revolution of 1956, page 618