death camp

American  

noun

1. a concentration camp in which the inmates are unlikely to survive or to which they have been sent to be executed.

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death camp British  

noun

1. a concentration camp in which the conditions are so brutal that few prisoners survive, or one to which prisoners are sent for execution

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Etymology

Origin of death camp

First recorded in 1940–45

Compare meaning

How does death-camp compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• concentration camp vs. death camp

Example Sentences

Only recently, he spent €20,000 of his own to acquire the oeuvre of a Czech composer, who died at a death camp, from his “wonderful but cash-strapped descendants.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 9, 2026

Several trials of Nazi camp staff have been held in recent years, spurred by the 2011 conviction of former Sobibor death camp guard John Demjanjuk, despite no proof he had directly killed anyone.

From Barron's • Nov. 24, 2025

Under an enormous, white tent that covered the death camp entrance, the director of the Auschwitz museum, Piotr Cywinski, issued a plea to protect the memory of what had happened, as the survivors died out.

From BBC • Jan. 27, 2025

In Germany, Holocaust Memorial Day, which this year marks the 79th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by the Soviet army, is associated with the pledge “Never again.”

From New York Times • Jan. 27, 2024

In the end no one was left, and the she-goats and the he-goats returned from the hills whence they had fled, and they looked in innocence at the death camp of the people.

From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya