A
death march is a forced
march of
prisoners of war or other captives or deportees with the intent to kill, brutalize, weaken and/or demoralize as many of the captives as possible along the way. It is distinguished in this way from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Death marches usually feature harsh physical labor and abuse, neglect of prisoner injury and illness, deliberate
starvation and
dehydration, humiliation and
torture, and execution of those unable to keep up the marching pace. The march may end at a
prisoner-of-war camp or
internment camp, or it may continue until all the prisoners are dead (a form of "execution by labor", as seen in the
Armenian genocide among other examples).