Nazi concentration camp badge

Nazi concentration camp badges were colored pieces of fabric used by the Nazis to identify concentration camp prisoners during World War II.

Nazi camp ID-emblems in a 1936 German illustration

Prisoners had to sew these badges onto their uniform jackets and pants. The badges used a color coding system to show why each prisoner had been sent to the camp. Different colors and shapes had different meanings. The prisoners were required to wear these badges of shame.

The badges helped guards assign tasks to the prisoners. If a prisoner's badge marked them as an escape suspect, the SS would not allow them to work outside the camp fence. If a prisoner had an F on their badge (meaning they were French), guards could force them to help translate instructions to new prisoners from France. If a guard looked at a prisoner and saw a green badge, the guard knew right away that the person was a convicted criminal. Guards often assigned these "green triangles" to be kapos. These were prisoners who were assigned to help the SS run the camps. Many kapos used abuse and violence to control other prisoners.

Some historical monuments use images of these identification badges to symbolize the victims of the concentration camps.

Today, some people use a pink triangle emblem to symbolize gay rights.

Badge coding system

Prisoners' distinguishing badges

Different camps used different systems of badges. In the later stages of World War II, the use of badges became less common in some camps. The following description is based on the badge coding system used in the Dachau concentration camp. This camp had one of the more detailed coding systems.

Most badges were inverted triangles. (This meant the widest part of the triangle was at the top of the shape, not the bottom.) The Nazis chose this shape because it looked like triangular road hazard signs that are common in Germany.

Single triangles

Single triangles of different colors identified different types of prisoners.

Black triangles

The Nazis made many different types of prisoners wear black triangles. The black triangle identified people who the Nazis called 'asocial' (asozial) or 'work-shy' (arbeitsscheu). These included alcoholics, drug addicts, homeless people, beggars, people with disabilities, prostitutes, lesbians, pacifists, and people who refused to be conscripted into the German armed forces.

Black triangles also marked Roma and Sinti people. They wore the black triangle with a Z on it (for Zigeuner, meaning Gypsy). Romani men were later assigned a brown triangle. However, Romani women always wore black triangles. The Nazis believed many stereotypes about Romani women. They thought these women were petty criminals (prostitutes, kidnappers, and fortune tellers). For this reason, the Nazis never stopped calling Romani women "asocial." Many of these women were forcibly sterilized.

The Nazis also used the black triangle to identify people with mental illnesses and "mentally disabled" people. Written on their badges was the word Blöd, which means "stupid." This category included people with autism. (At that time, autism was called Asperger's Syndrome, named after Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger, who was involved with the Nazis). People with schizophrenia and epilepsy also wore black triangles. Instead of being sent to concentration camps, many people in this group were forcibly sterilized, shot, or gassed in psychiatric institutions as part of the T4 Euthanasia Program.

Other people with disabilities, like diabetes, also had to wear the black triangle. (The Nazis thought that diabetes was a 'Jewish disease.' There was no evidence for this claim. Instead, it was a result of antisemitism in medicine, science, and culture.)

Red triangles

Red triangles identified political prisoners. These included:

• Social democrats
• Liberals
• Socialists
• Communists
• Anarchists
• Trade unionists
• Freemasons
• Non-Jews who helped Jewish people

Green triangles

Green triangles identified convicts and criminals (who often worked as kapos).

Blue triangles

Blue triangles identified foreign forced laborers and emigrants from Nazi-controlled countries. This category included apatrides (stateless people, who were not citizens of any country). Spanish refugees from Francoist Spain belonged to this category. Because these people did not support the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, the Spanish government cancelled their citizenship.

Purple triangles

Purple triangles identified the Nazis' religious enemies. Over 99% of these people were Jehovah's Witnesses. Members of other small pacifist religious groups also wore purple triangles.

Pink triangles

Pink triangles usually identified homosexual men and others who the Nazis called homosexual (like bisexual men and transgender women). The Nazis also used pink triangles to identify sexual offenders, paedophiles, and zoophiles. The Nazis forcibly sterilized many people in this group.

Uninverted red triangles

Uninverted red triangles identified several groups of people:

• Enemy prisoners of war (called Sonderhäftling, meaning 'special detainee')
• Spies and traitors (called Aktionshäftling, meaning 'activities detainee')
• Military deserters or criminals (Wehrmachtsangehöriger, meaning 'service member')

• Some examples of the single triangle design at Nazi camps
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  Single-triangle badges in various colors visible on Sachsenhausen concentration camp prisoners
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  Single triangles visible on Sachsenhausen detainees
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  This badge marked an inmate as a Jehovah's Witness
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  Red emblems on a Dachau detainee's clothing marking them as a political prisoner
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  More Sachsenhausen detainees with badges on their uniforms
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  Black triangles are visible on the trousers of these Romani detainees at Dachau
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  A United States Army photo of Austrian economist and financial specialist Benedikt Kautsky, a political prisoner, after he was liberated from Buchenwald
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  The liberated Neuengamme survivor standing on the right has a triangle patch with a top-bar

Double triangles

See also: Yellow badge

The Nazis used double-triangle badges to identify Jewish prisoners. These badges were made of two overlapping triangles. These two triangles formed a Star of David, a Jewish symbol.

• A red inverted triangle superimposed upon a yellow one represented a Jewish political prisoner.
• A green inverted triangle superimposed upon a yellow one represented a Jewish habitual criminal.
• A purple inverted triangle superimposed upon a yellow one represented a Jehovah's Witness of Jewish descent.
• A pink inverted triangle superimposed upon a yellow one represented a Jewish "sexual offender", usually a gay or bisexual man.
• A black inverted triangle superimposed upon a yellow one represented 'asocial' and 'work-shy' Jews.
• A voided black inverted triangle superimposed over a yellow triangle represented a Jew convicted of miscegenation and labelled as a Rassenschänder (race defiler).
• A yellow inverted triangle superimposed over a black triangle represented an Aryan woman convicted of miscegenation and labelled as a Rassenschänder (race defiler).

People who wore inverted pink, green, voided black, and yellow double badges were usually convicted by criminal courts before they were sent to concentration camps.

Some double-triangle badges identified non-Jews. For example, at Mauthausen, Spanish Republicans had to wear a blue inverted triangle superimposed upon a red one.

• Some period examples of the double triangle design at Nazi camps
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  A Sachsenhausen detainee (the man wearing glasses) wears a two-color identification badge
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  Jewish people with disabilities at Buchenwald in 1938. They wore black triangles on a yellow triangles, marking them as 'asocial' Jews
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  Part of a Dachau roll call; day badges are visible on the detainees' uniforms
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  A Sachsenhausen detainee's uniform. The red triangle atop a yellow triangle (at bottom left) marked the prisoner as a Jewish political enemy

Distinguishing marks

In addition to color-coding, non-German prisoners were marked by the first letter of the German name for their home country or ethnic group. Red triangle with a letter, for example:

• B identified Belgians (Belgier)
• E stood for English (Engländer)
• F identified French people (Franzosen)
• H stood for people from Holland (Holländer)
• I identified Italians (Italiener)
• J marked Yugoslavs (Jugoslawen)
• N identified Norwegians (Norweger)
• P identified Poles (Polen)
• S marked Spanish Republicans (republikanische Spanier)
• T identified Czechs (Tscheche)
• U marked Hungarians (Ungarn)
• Z (next to a black triangle) marked Roma people (Zigeuner)

Polish emigrant laborers originally wore a purple diamond with a yellow backing. A letter P (for Polen) was cut out of the purple cloth to show the yellow backing beneath.

Furthermore, repeat offenders (rückfällige, meaning recidivists) had to wear bars over their stars or triangles. Different colors represented different crimes:

• A political prisoner would have a red bar over their star or triangle.
• A professional criminal would have a green bar.
• A foreign forced laborer would not have a blue bar (because they would be imprisoned until the end of the war. However, these people might have a different coloured bar if they belonged to another category of prisoners.
• A Jehovah's Witness would have a purple bar.
• A homosexual or sex offender would have a pink bar.
• An asocial would have a black bar.
• Roma and Sinti would usually be incarcerated in special sub-camps until they died, so they usually did not receive a repeat stripe.

Later in the war (late 1944), to save cloth, Jewish prisoners wore a yellow bar over a regular point-down triangle to indicate their status. For instance, regular Jews would wear a yellow bar over a red triangle, while Jewish criminals would wear a yellow bar over a green triangle.

• Some period examples of nationality-letter marking at Nazi camps
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  The scientist Dr. Joseph Brau had to wear this badge in Buchenwald, marking him as a French political enemy
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  Another photo of Dr. Joseph Brau's Buchenwald uniform
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  This badge marked a Polish political enemy
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  At Stutthof, Lidia Główczewska had to wear this badge. It identified her as prisoner number 29659 and marked her as a Polish political enemy
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  Auschwitz detainee Ignacy Kwarta wears a red P-triangle, meaning a Polish political enemy
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  Dutch Jews at Mauthausen wearing a yellow star and the letter N (for Niederländer ).
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  A Sachsenhausen-issued red F emblem for a French political enemy
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  Emblems were also used on some detainee identification cards. At Mauthausen, this card identified the scientist Jerzy Kaźmirkiewicz. The P-triangle on the card marks him as a Polish political enemy
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  Dachau survivors toast their liberation as the man standing in center between the bottles wears a P-triangle.
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  A liberated Bergen-Belsen survivor (left) with a late war ersatz. Instead of wearing a cloth badge, this survivor had to wear a large N on her outer clothes

Table of camp inmate markings

	Politisch Political prisoner	Berufsverbrecher Professional criminal	Emigrant Foreign forced laborer	Bibelforscher Bible Student (Jehovah's Witnesses)	Homosexuell Male homosexual/sex offender	Arbeitsscheu/Asozial Work-shy/Asocial	Zigeuner Gypsy (Roma or Sinti male)
Basic colours
Markings for repeaters
Inmates of Strafkompanie (punishment companies)
Markings for Jews
Political prisoner nationality markings The capital letter of the name of the country on a red triangle			Belgier (Belgian)	Tscheche (Czech)	Franzose (French)	Pole (Polish)	Spanier (Spanish)
Special markings	Jüdischer Rassenschänder Jewish race defiler	Rassenschänderin Female race defiler	Escape suspect	Häftlingsnummer Inmate number	Kennzeichen für Funktionshäftlinge Special inmates' brown armband		Enemy POW or deserter
Example		Marks were worn in descending order as follows: inmate number, repeater bar, triangle or star, member of penal battalion, escape suspect. In this example, the inmate is a Jewish convict with multiple convictions, serving in a Strafkompanie (penal unit) and who is suspected of trying to escape.

Postwar use

Triangles appear on many postwar memorials to the Nazis' victims. These shapes represent the identification patches used in the camps. Sometimes, plain or colored triangles represent all categories of inmates. Often, inverted red triangles represent all victims of the concentration camps, including also the non-Jewish victims like Slavs, Poles, communists, homosexuals, Roma and Sinti, people with disabilities, Soviet POWs, and Jehovah's Witnesses.

Some Holocaust memorials use more specific triangles. An inverted pink triangle symbolizes gay victims. A yellow and/or non-inverted triangle generally stands for Jewish victims. Some monuments also include badges with nationality letters.

• Some examples of camp triangle emblems on monuments and related uses
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  A memorial at Sachsenhausen decorated with red triangles
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  A Dora Todesmarsch (death march) roadside tablet marked only with the date and a red triangle
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  A colorless triangle at the Klooga Jewish victims' memorial
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  A red triangle on a historical marker. The marker shows the route prisoners were forced to take on the Buchenwald death march (Todesmarsch).
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  Red triangle on a historical marker for Sachsenhausen death march victims
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  Inverted triangle on a monument for Ravensbrück death march victims, in the village of Grabow-Below
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  Triangle symbol on a Wöbbelin memorial stone
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  This boulder in Lindenring honors 2,000 women victims of Ravensbrück
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  Pink triangle on a memorial for people on the Cap Arcona prison ship. About 7,000 people died after the Royal Air Force bombed the ship
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  Triangle symbol at the Neustadt-Glewe concentration camp memorial
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  F-triangle at Mauthausen-Gusen, honoring French victims
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  A B-triangle incorporated into the Belgian Political Prisoner's Cross
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  This F-triangle at Hinzert honors French victims, especially the victims killed after Hitler's Nacht und Nebel directive
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  A monument to Neuengamme victims in Hamburg. The letters KZ are not nationality-letters; they are the German abbreviation for Konzentrationslager (concentration camp)
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  Triangular symbol on a memorial to victims killed at Genshagen (right panel)
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  A P-triangle at a Zgorzelec memorial
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  P-triangle on the Polish medal for camp victims
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  Various badges on a Dachau memorial
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  Pink triangle (Rosa Winkel in German) memorial for gay men killed at Buchenwald
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  This pink triangle plaque in the Berlin Nollendorfplatz subway station honors gay male victims
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  Amsterdam's Homomonument uses pink triangles symbolically to memorialize gay men killed in the Holocaust. The pink triangles also honor victims of anti-gay violence.
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  Every year, a pink triangle is erected on Twin Peaks in San Francisco during Pride weekend.

2020 Trump campaign

In June 2020, Donald Trump was running for re-election. His campaign posted an advertisement on Facebook which said that "Dangerous MOBS of far-left groups are running through our streets and causing absolute mayhem." The ads identified these groups as "ANTIFA" and used an image of a downward-pointing red triangle. These ads appeared on the Facebook pages of Donald Trump, the Trump campaign, and Vice President Mike Pence. Many observers compared the graphic to the symbol used by the Nazis for identifying political prisoners such as communists, social democrats and socialists. Many noted that there were 88 ads. Neo-Nazis use the number 88 as an abbreviation for the Nazi salute Heil Hitler. (The letter H is the eighth in the alphabet, so 88 stands for "HH.")

Facebook removed the campaign ads that used the red triangle symbol, saying that its use in this context violated their policy against "organized hate". The Trump campaign's communications director wrote that "The red triangle is a common Antifa symbol used in an ad about Antifa." However, the historian Mark Bray, who wrote Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, disagreed. He said that the symbol Antifa in the United States does not use this symbol.

References

Informational notes

Citations

Bibliography

• Richard Plant (1988). The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals. Owl Books. ISBN 0-8050-0600-1.
• Camp badge chart at historyplace.com.
• Additional camp badge chart Archived 2021-03-04 at the Wayback Machine.

Other websites

• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Classification system in Nazi concentration camps.
• Stars, triangles and markings. Jewish Virtual Library.
• Gay Prisoners in Concentration Camps as Compared with Jehovah's Witnesses and Political Prisoners. Ruediger Lautmann.