The German word Konzentrationslager (abbreviated KZ) is a literal translation of the English term, concentration camp.
Like in English, a Konzentrationslager is per definition to distinguish from refugee camps, from detention camps for POWs, and from camps for convicted criminals, although in Nazi Germany some camps called Konzentrationslager actually served these purposes — all of them connected with severe human rights abuses.
In German language, the term Konzentrationslager often includes the extermination camps founded in 1941–1942 for the purpose of genocide with industrial efficiency, in which at least three million people, most of them Jews, lost their lifes in the following three years.
See further: concentration camp.
