[HillaryBriss]

> "Concentration camp" has a specific connotation.

In my personal experience, "concentration camp" has been applied specifically to mean the camps operated by the German government in the 1930's and 40's, camps which intentionally tortured and murdered millions of innocent Jews, and certain other "undesirables" and enemies of the Nazi regime.

When I hear that term, I personally think of emaciated prisoners wearing striped uniforms, packed into cramped wooden shelves. I think of hopeless people peering out from behind barbed wire fences suffering under a regime of forced labor and starvation. I think of horrific death chambers filled with poison gas and choking, dying human beings and towering piles of dead bodies.

I personally can't get those images out of my head when I hear the term "concentration camp" and I would guess most other people in the US conjure up the same images specifically tied to Nazi Germany when they hear that term.

But NPR has an interesting article about the meaning and historical usage of "concentration camp." The subject arose when someone used the term to describe the sites where Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated during WWII.

https://www.npr.org/sections/publiceditor/2012/02/10/1466917...

[olefoo]

The use of concentration camps as part of a planned ethnic cleansing campaign originated with the American governments efforts to relocate and exterminate the indigenous populations of the Southeastern United States see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Removal_Act if you want to pick up the trail.