Concentration camp

[[File:P1010213.JPG|thumb|right|165px|Showers at Mauthausen concentration camp]]{{crimenav}}{{expand}}
A '''concentration camp''' is like a [[jail]], only without the hygienic conditions and concern for prisoners' basic [[human rights]]. Typically, authorities use concentration camps to isolate groups of people — identifiable by some "[[Other|outsider]]" trait — from the general population for some trumped-up reason.

Concentration camps were [[Design is detectable|design]]ed in no small part to remove "undesirables" from their [[social]] and [[political]] contexts, reducing them to the status of "non-persons". Channeling Hannah Arendt and especially [[Michel Foucault]], the Italian [[postmodernist]] philosopher Giorgio Agamben writes in ''States of Exception'' about how camps like [[Auschwitz]] represented "the most biopolitical space ever to have been realized, in which ''power confronts nothing but pure life''."<ref>Tom Frost, ed., ''Giorgio Agamben: Legal, Political and Philosophical Perspectives''. Taylor & Francis, 2013. {{isbn|9781134097791}}</ref>{{rp|111}}

==Examples==
The Spanish placed hundreds of thousands of [[Cuban]]s into concentration camps during the {{wpl|Cuban War of Independence}} in 1896.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/cubainwartime00daviuoft ''Cuba in War Time''] by Richard Harding Davis (1897). Reprinted in 2016 by Dover Publications. ISBN 0486811158.</ref> The [[British]] first used the term as a label to identify {{wpl|Second Boer War concentration camps|facilities used to detain Boers}} in [[South Africa]] during the Second [[Boer War]] of 1899-1902.

When speaking of concentration camps (as one does), two examples dating to [[World War II]] quickly come to mind: 

*The camps that the [[Nazi]]s herded European [[Jews]] and other "undesirables" into during the [[Holocaust]] — after having previously "concentrated" some in [[ghetto]]s. (Some people also refer to extermination camps as "concentration camps"; see [[Holocaust denial]].)
*The [[Japanese American internment|Japanese "internment" camps]] in the United States.

One could also regard [[Native American|American Indian]] reservations as examples (if one is prone to [[hyperbole]]). Likewise, some of the P.O.W. camps on both sides during the [[American Civil War]]. The [[Soviet]] {{wpl|Gulag}} system might provide a better comparison.

Concentration camps made a brief comeback in Europe in the 1990s with the [[Yugoslav Wars]]. There are reports that {{wpl|Russian filtration camps for Ukrainians|Russia built concentration camps to process Ukrainian citizens}} from regions under Russian occupation before transferring them into Russia as they invaded the country in 2022. The best currently existing example of concentration camps, however, are those in [[North Korea]], called ''kwan-li-so''. These camps hold an estimated 150,000-200,000 political prisoners,<ref>[http://www.economist.com/node/21553029 North Korea's gulag: Never again?], ''The Economist''</ref> in a style very similar to the Soviet Gulags, though sometimes they can get somewhat... ''[[Godwin's Law#How it works|Nazi-like]]''.

[[Chechnya]] has opened concentration camps for [[gays|gay]] men.<ref>[http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/04/10/chechnya-has-opened-concentration-camps-for-gay-men/ Chechnya has opened concentration camps for gay men], ''Pinknews''</ref> Cuba had a similar institution, the {{wpl|Military Units to Aid Production|UMAP|,}} for a while, where thousands of LGBT people, Christians, and other dissidents were arrested and put into forced labor.

==Conspiracy theories==
Some cranks believe that [[FEMA concentration camps|the return of concentration camps]] in the United States is right around the corner (damn, it's taking those [[Illuminati]] [[reptilians|shape-shifting lizards]] a long time). They also conveniently prefer to [[denial|ignore or downplay]] the very real and very inhumane "detention centers" run by [[U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement|ICE]].<ref>[http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/06/aoc-holocaust-why-migrant-detention-centers-are-concentration-camps-explained.html With Trump’s Migrant Camps, the History We Should Fear Repeating Is Our Own], ''New York Magazine''</ref><ref>[http://www.thedailybeast.com/holocaust-survivor-yes-the-border-detention-centers-are-like-concentration-camps Holocaust Survivor: Yes, the Border Detention Centers Are Like Concentration Camps], ''The Daily Beast''</ref> Gee, [[racism|I wonder why]]...

==References==
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[[Category:Authoritarianism]]
[[Category:Crimes against humanity]]
[[Category:Slavery]]
[[Category:Totalitarianism]]

Categories: Authoritarianism, Crimes against humanity, Slavery, Totalitarianism