concentration camps

[bednobs]

what is the meaning of the word concentration in the title of concentration camps? is it a direct translation from the german, or a name that britain gave them?

[andy-hughes]

http://simple.wikiped...ki/Concentration_camp

The term is an umbrella label for anywhere one nation keeps citizens of another under capture without rights.

The comon term is of course for the Nazi camps which were used to exterminate the non-Ayrian races such as Jews, Gypsys, and so on.

[sandyRoe]

The first ones were used by the British during the Boer War. Irregular Boer forces were getting supplied by farming families. The British authorities rounded the families up and held them in concentration camps.

[sunny-dave]

I think 'concentration' is used in the sense of 'bringing together in the same place' - as for instance we might say "Balti Houses in Birmingham are concentrated in the Sparkbrook area"

[bednobs]

yes, thatnks, but what is the meaning of the word in this instance?

[Mamyalynne]

I think that the word 'Concentration' is probably used literally here. as is a large concentration of people in one place for the same reason.

[Nibble]

But the concept of the concentration camp was born during the Second Boer War in 1900, under the auspices of Lord Kitchener, as noted in

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War

scroll down to Concentration camps (1900–1902)

[bednobs]

sorry sunnydave, your answer wasn't there when i posted

[Nibble]

Actual entymology given here

http://www.etymonline...rm=concentration+camp

[jake-the-peg]

It's often said that the firstconcentration camps were used by the British in the Boer war.

These are not of Auschwitz

<warning these are obviously disturbing>

http://www.boer.co.za/boerwar/fotos/kind2.gif

http://www.boer.co.za/boerwar/fotos/kind1.gif

http://www.boer.co.za/boerwar/fotos/kind3.gif

http://www.boer.co.za/boerwar/hellkamp.htm

Unlike the extermination camps there doesn't seem to have been a deliberate attempt to wipe these people out - just a failure to care if they lived or died.

[Prudie]

Andy's link suggests the word originated from Spanish:-
The first concentration camps were found in Cuba under Spain's "Reconcentrado" Policy 1896-97.

[LazyGun]

Its interesting that a term imbued with horror and death, linked for most irrevocably with the evil Nazis, was actually gifted to the world by the British Empire.

Ahh, the British Colonial Heritage! The embarassing gift that just keeps on giving....

[naomi24]

This from the internet (edited slightly):

Concentration: "action of bringing to a center," noun of action from verb concentrate (q.v.). Meaning "a mass so collected" is from 1670s;

The Germans called them Konzentrationslager.