[Ads-l] death camp

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED has some early exx. with the meaning of "a camp where many people have
died (as from disease)."  But the now usual political sense has to wait
till 1944.

Antedating:

1943 _Oregonian_ (Portland) (June 2) 2: 600 later were sent to an
undisclosed concentration camp - possibly the Majdenek death camp.

OED has "extermination camp" from 1945. Earlier:

1944 _Times-Picayune_ (N.O.) (Aug. 11) 1: Blum Executed at 'Death Camp,'
States Red Star....Moscow, Aug. 10 - ...Simonov said an "extermination
camp" had been set up, consisting of crematories and a system of gallows.

OED lacks synonymous "death factory," which appears in the same article,
and a day earlier here:

1944 _Seattle Daily Times_ (Aug. 10) 9: Moscow, Aug. 10 (AP) - Konstantin
Simonov, correspondent for the Army newspaper Red Star, made public today
an article that indicated former Premier Leon Blum of France had died at
the Nazis' death factory near Lublin.

Many exx. can be found since.

All the above citations refer to the Majdenek camp in Poland.

JL
-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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