There is a man by the name of Terry Hallman (American living in Ukraine) who has written an blog/opinion piece that he titled
Ukraine's Death Camps for Children. You can also find it
here.
Terry posted his piece about 5 months ago and I have been thinking about a response.
First I need to start with why I HATE this writing. I don't believe the Ukrainian government is deliberately concentrating children into orphanages to
KILL them.
Terry's language choice was unnecessarily emotionally inflammatory.
Buuuuut he has a couple of valid points hiding behind his language. I cannot write him off as a kook, crackpot, wack job, eccentric, half baked, crazy.
Let's start with a basic definition so we are all on the same page.
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
death camp
a concentration camp in which the inmates are unlikely to survive or to which they have been sent to be executed.
American Heritage Dictionary
death camp
A concentration camp in which those held captive are likely to die or be killed.
WordNet - Cite This Source
death camp
A concentration camp where prisoners are likely to die or be killed
Wikipedia
death camp
A death camp is a concentration camp which has been deliberately set up in order to kill those imprisoned there; such camps are not intended as punishment for criminal actions, rather, they are intended to facilitate genocide. The most famous death camps are the Nazi extermination camps, used during World War II.
The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
University of Minnesota
death camp
Nazi extermination centers where Jews and nonJews were brought to be put to death as part of Hitler's Final Solution.
SPONSOR
So for the vast majority of folks "death camp" means concentrating people and deliberating killing them.
Terry's sidekick Jeff Mowatt disagrees with this definition:
From Jeff Mowatt
Posted: 15 September 2006
Remember, these institutions referred to as Death Camps are internats not orphanages and that the report which revealed the dreadful conditions included 2 statements. A witness describing them as concentration camps and the words of the director who stated that his staff were too busy burying children to provide effective care. In these circumstances I would say that concentration was the intent and death the result, making the two terms synonymous.
From: Ukraine's Ombudsperson Karpachyova and US Ambassador Taylor address adoption issue
Specialized and Internat Ukrainian Orphanages
Ukraine's Death Camps for Children
I Adopted From A Specialized Orphanage
Do Children Die at Ukrainian Orphanages?
Ukrainian Orphanage Blogs
(where to find stories and pictures of specialized or internat orphanages)
Berdyansk, Vinnitsa, Uzhgorod, Zhytomyr
Dnepro, Volhynia, Odessa