Nazi concentration camp badge

Schematic of the triangle-based badge system in use at most Nazi concentration camps.

Nazi concentration camp badges, primarily triangles, were part of the system of identification in German camps. They were used in the concentration camps in the German-occupied countries to identify the reason the prisoners had been placed there. The triangles were made of fabric and were sewn on jackets and trousers of the prisoners. These mandatory badges of shame had specific meanings indicated by their colour and shape. Such emblems helped guards assign tasks to the detainees. For example, a guard at a glance could see if someone was a convicted criminal (green patch) and thus likely of a tough temperament suitable for kapo duty.

Someone with an escape suspect mark usually would not be assigned to work squads operating outside the camp fence. Someone wearing an F could be called upon to help translate guards' spoken instructions to a trainload of new arrivals from France. Some historical monuments quote the badge-imagery, with the use of a triangle being a sort of visual shorthand to symbolize all camp victims.

The modern-day use of a pink triangle emblem to symbolize gay rights is a response to the camp identification patches. The black, blue, purple, and red triangles have also been reclaimed by various remembrance and anti fascist groups, particularly in Europe. Such as the Association of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime – Federation of Antifascists (VVN-BdA) in Germany and other members of the International Federation of Resistance Fighters – Association of Anti-Fascists (FIR).

Badge coding system

Further information: Victims of Nazi Germany, ▼ Communists, ▼ Communist Party, ▼ Gay men, ▼ Jehovah's Witnesses, and ▼ Romani Holocaust

Badge for a Polish (non-Jewish) political prisoner (ID 29659), Lidia Główczewska, in Stutthof.

Marking codes used by the Nazis.

The system of badges varied between the camps and in the later stages of World War II the use of badges dwindled in some camps and became increasingly accidental in others. The following description is based on the badge coding system used before and during the early stages of the war in the Dachau concentration camp, which had one of the more elaborate coding systems.

Shape was chosen by analogy with the common triangular road hazard signs in Germany that denote warnings to motorists. Here, a triangle is called inverted because its base is up while one of its angles points down.

Prisoners' distinguishing badges

Single triangles

Main articles: ▼ inverted red, ▼ brown, ▼ purple, ▼ black, ▼ pink, and LGBTQ triangles

Triangle	Prisoner categories
▼ Red inverted	Austrian economist Benedikt Kautsky, a Political prisoner, liberated from Buchenwald. The red triangle was used for political prisoners, including occupied country resistance members (partisans), social democrats, liberals, socialists, communists, anarchists, gentiles who assisted Jews, trade unionists, and Freemasons. Red emblems of a political enemy on a Dachau detainee's clothing.^
▲ Red upright	A red triangle pointing in the other direction were used for an enemy POW (Sonderhäftling, meaning special detainee), a spy or traitor (Aktionshäftling, meaning activities detainee), or a military deserter or criminal (Wehrmachtsangehöriger, meaning Armed Forces member).
▼ Green	Green indicated convicts and criminals (often working as kapos).
▼ Blue	Blue showed foreign forced laborers and emigrants. This category included stateless people ("apatrides"), Spanish refugees from Francoist Spain whose citizenship was revoked and emigrants to countries which were occupied by Nazi Germany or were under the German sphere of influence.
▼ Pink	primarily homosexual men and those who were identified as such at the time (e.g., bisexual men, male prostitutes, and those deemed 'transvestites') and sexual offenders as well as pedophiles and zoophiles. Many in this group were subject to forced sterilization.
▼ Brown	Assigned to male Roma later on in the Romani Holocaust. (Originally, all Roma wore a black triangle with a Z (Zigeuner); female Roma continued to wear the black triangle, as they were viewed as petty criminals.
▼ Black	Black triangles on the trousers of Romani detainees at Dachau. The back triangle indicated people who were deemed asocial elements (asozial) and work-shy (arbeitsscheu), including the following: Roma and Sinti. They wore the black triangle with a Z notation (for Zigeuner, meaning 'Gypsy') to the right of the triangle's point, or in white on top of the triangle. Male Roma were later assigned a brown triangle. Mentally ill and developmentally disabled. Their triangles were additionally inscribed with the word Blöd, meaning 'stupid'. This category included, notably, autistic people among this group, though many others, including schizophrenic and epileptic people were forcibly sterilized, shot, or gassed in psychiatric institutions as opposed to at the Nazi camps. Alcoholics and drug addicts. Vagrants and beggars. Pacifists and conscription resisters. Sex workers. Lesbians. Other disabled people, such as people with diabetes (as "Diabetes was conceptualized as a Jewish disease not necessarily because its prevalence was high among this population, but because medicine, science, and culture reinforced each other").
▼ Purple	A prisoner uniform with purple triangle, the mark of Jehovah's Witnesses. Purple was mostly used for Jehovah's Witnesses (over 99%) as well as members of other small pacifist religious groups. Specimen showing a purple triangle, indicating a Jehovah's Witness.

Examples of the single triangle badges at Nazi camps

• 
  Liberated Neuengamme survivor standing on the right has a triangle patch with a top-bar
• 
  Single-triangles visible on Sachsenhausen detainees
• 
  More Sachsenhausen detainees
• 
  Single-triangle badges in various colors visible on Sachsenhausen concentration camp detainees

Double triangles

Further information: Yellow badge § Axis powers, and Judeo-Bolshevism (conspiracy theory)

Wearing a yellow star was mandatory for Jews in occupied Europe, before the badge was used in concentration camps.

Origins of yellow star badges

Double-triangle badges usually used two superimposed triangles to form a six pointed star, resembling the Jewish Star of David. Yellow stars were first used by the Nazis in Jewish ghettos in occupied Poland. Jews elsewhere in German-occupied Europe were then also forced to wear the symbol in public, and in ghettos they established or securitized.

Painting of Jews in 16th Century western Germany wearing circular yellow badges.

Colour combinations for double triangle code

Inverted triangle	Overlayed on	Person	Other prisoner categories
Blue	a red inverted triangle to form a red border	Represented a foreign forced labour and political prisoner, such as Spanish Republicans in Mauthausen.
Yellow	an upright yellow triangle to form a 6-pointed star	The badge indicated a Jewish person with no other category.
Red		a Jewish political prisoner.
Green		a Jewish habitual criminal.
Purple		a Jehovah's Witness of Jewish descent.
Pink		a Jewish "sexual offender", typically a gay or bisexual man.
Black		an "asocial" or work-shy Jew.
Voided black ▽		a Jew	convicted of miscegenation and labelled as a Rassenschänder (race defiler).
Yellow	an upright black triangle	an "Aryan" woman

Examples of the double triangle design at Nazi camps

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  Sachsenhausen detainee's red political enemy triangle atop a yellow Jew triangle (lower left)
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  Part of a Dachau roll call – day badges visible on detainees
• 
  Sachsenhausen detainee with glasses in the foreground wears a two-color ID-emblem
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  Disabled Jews with a black triangle on a yellow triangle, meaning asocial Jews, Buchenwald, 1938.

Coloured bars to show multiple categories

Repeat offenders (rückfällige, meaning recidivists) would receive bars over their stars or triangles, a different colour for a different crime.

• 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, as their impressment was for the duration of the war, but might have a different coloured bar if they were drawn from another pool of inmates.
• 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, and so would not normally receive a repeat stripe.

From 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. Jewish criminals would wear a yellow bar over a green triangle.

Letters

Further information: German-occupied Europe

Nationality markers

In addition to colour-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 (Belgier, Belgians)
• E (Engländer, "English"; in practice used for all British)
• F (Franzosen, French)
• I (Italiener, Italians)
• J (Jugoslawen, Yugoslavs)
• N (Niederländer, Dutch) — H (for Hollander) is also recorded
• No (Norweger, Norwegian)
• P (Polen, Poles)
• S (Spanier, generally used for Spanish Republican exiles)
• T (Tscheche, Czechs)
• U (Ungarn, Hungarians)
• Z next to, or on top of, a black triangle (Zigeuner, 'gypsy'): Roma. Male Roma were issued with brown triangles in some camps.

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.

Nacht und Nebel

Some camps assigned Nacht und Nebel (night and fog) prisoners had them wear two large letters NN in yellow.

Examples of nationality-letter marking at Nazi camps

• 
  F on a red triangle (French political enemy) on the Buchenwald clothing of Dr. Joseph Brau^
• 
  A F-triangle on the Buchenwald clothing of Dr. Joseph Brau^
• 
  A marking meaning 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 wearing a yellow star and the letter N for Niederländer at Mauthausen.
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  Sachsenhausen-issued red F emblem for a French political enemy
• 
  Emblems were used on some detainee ID-cards, as shown here on the Mauthausen card of Polish scientist Jerzy Kaźmirkiewicz, where a P-triangle appears.^
• 
  Dachau survivors toast their liberation as the man standing in center between the bottles wears a P triangle.
• 
  A liberated Bergen-Belsen survivor with a late war ersatz variant (left) showcasing no cloth patch, but a prominent N marked on the outer clothes
• 
  Plate with concentration camp marking.

Reformatory inmates (E or EH)

See also: Marwan Barghouti

Erziehungshäftlinge (reformatory inmates) wore E or EH in large black letters on a white square. They were made up of intellectuals and respected community members who could organize and lead a resistance movement, suspicious persons picked up in sweeps or stopped at checkpoints, people caught performing conspiratorial activities or acts and inmates who broke work discipline. They were assigned to hard labor for six to eight weeks and were then released. It was hoped that the threat of permanent incarceration at hard labor would deter them from further action.

Other distinguishing markings

Many markings and combinations existed. A prisoner would usually have at least two, and possibly more than six.

Limited preventative custody

Limited preventative custody detainee (Befristete Vorbeugungshaft Häftling, or BV) was the term for general criminals, who wore green triangles with no special marks. They originally were only supposed to be incarcerated at the camp until their term expired and then they would be released. When the war began, they were confined indefinitely for its duration.

Polizeihäftlinge (police inmates), short for Polizeilich Sicherungsverwahrte Häftlinge (police secure custody inmates), wore either PH in large black letters on a white square or the letter S (for Sicherungsverwahrt – secure custody) on a green triangle. To save expense, some camps had them just wear their civilian clothes without markings. Records used the letter PSV (Polizeilich Sicherungsverwahrt) to designate them. They were people awaiting trial by a police court-martial or who were already convicted. They were detained in a special jail barracks until they were executed.

Soviet prisoners of war (russische Kriegsgefangenen) assigned to work camps (Arbeitslager) wore two large letters SU (for sowjetischer Untermensch, meaning Soviet sub-human) in yellow and had vertical stripes painted on their uniforms. They were the few who had not been shot out of hand or died of neglect from untreated wounds, exposure to the elements, or starvation before they could reach a camp. They performed hard labor. Some joined Andrey Vlasov's Liberation Army to fight for the Germans.

Labor education detainees (Arbeitserziehung Häftling) wore a white letter A on their black triangle. This stood for Arbeitsscheuer ("work-shy person"), designating stereotypically "lazy" social undesirables like Gypsies, petty criminals (e.g. prostitutes and pickpockets), alcoholics/drug addicts and vagrants. They were usually assigned to work at labor camps.

Asoziale (anti-socials) inmates wore a plain black triangle. They were considered either too "selfish" or "deviant" to contribute to society or were considered too impaired to support themselves. They were therefore considered a burden. This category included pacifists and conscription resisters, petty or habitual criminals, the mentally ill and the mentally and/or physically disabled. They were usually executed.

The Wehrmacht Strafbattalion (punishment battalion) and SS Bewährungstruppe (probation company) were military punishment units. They consisted of Wehrmacht and SS military criminals, SS personnel convicted by an Honor Court of bad conduct, and civilian criminals for which military service was either the assigned punishment or a voluntary replacement of imprisonment. They wore regular uniforms. They were forbidden rank or unit insignia until they had proven themselves in combat. They wore an uninverted (point-upwards) red triangle on their upper sleeves to indicate their status. Most were used for hard labor, "special tasks" (unwanted dangerous jobs like defusing landmines or running phone cables) or were used as forlorn hopes or cannon fodder. The infamous Dirlewanger Brigade was an example of a regular unit created from such personnel.

A Strafkompanie (punishment company) was a hard labor unit in the camps. Inmates assigned to it wore a black roundel bordered white under their triangle patch.

Prisoners "suspected of [attempting to] escape" (Fluchtverdächtiger) wore a red roundel bordered white under their triangle patch. If also assigned to hard labor, they wore the red roundel under their black Strafkompanie roundel.

A prisoner-functionary (Funktionshäftling), or kapo (boss), wore a cloth brassard (their Kennzeichen, or identifying mark) to indicate their status. They served as camp guards (Lagerpolizei), barracks clerks (Blockschreiber) and the senior prisoners (ältesten, meaning elders) at the camp (lagerältester), barracks (blockältester) and room (stubenältester) levels of camp organization. They received privileges like bigger and sometimes better food rations, better quarters or even a private room, luxuries like tobacco or alcohol, and access to the camp's facilities, like the showers or the pool. Failure to please their captors meant demotion and loss of privileges, and an almost certain death at the hands of their fellow inmates.

Detainees wearing civilian clothing instead of the striped uniforms, more common later in the war, were often marked with a prominent X on the back. This made for an ersatz prisoner uniform. For permanence, such Xs were made with white oil paint, with sewn-on cloth strips, or were cut, with underlying jacket-liner fabric providing the contrasting color. Detainees were compelled to sew their number and if applicable, a triangle emblem onto the fronts of such X-ed clothing.

Summary table of camp inmate markings

Prisoner category	Politisch (political prisoner)	Berufsverbrecher (professional criminal)	Emigrant (foreign forced laborer)	Bibelforscher Bible Student (Jehovah's Witnesses)	Homosexuell (homosexual male or sex offender)	"Arbeitsscheu" (work‑shy) or "Asozial" (asocial)	Zigeuner ("Gypsy") Roma or Sinti male
Colours	Red	Green	Blue	Purple	Pink	Black	Brown
Triangles
Markings for repeaters
Inmates of Strafkompanie (punishment companies)
Markings for Jews
Nationality markings	Political prisoner nationality markings used 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

Further information: Red triangle (badge) § After WWII

The inverted red, pink, purple, black, and blue triangles have also been reclaimed by various remembrance and anti fascist groups, particularly in Europe. For example, the red triangle emblem of the Association of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime – Federation of Antifascists (VVN-BdA) and other members of the International Federation of Resistance Fighters – Association of Anti-Fascists.

Memorials

Triangle-motifs appear on many postwar memorials to the victims of the Nazis. Most triangles are plain while some others bear nationality-letters. The otherwise potentially puzzling designs are a direct reference to the identification patches used in the camps. On such monuments, typically an inverted (point down, base up) triangle (especially if red) evokes all victims, including also the non-Jewish victims like Poles and other Slavs, communists, homosexuals, Roma and Sinti (see Porajmos), people with disability (see Action T4), Soviet POWs and Jehovah's Witnesses. An inverted triangle colored pink would symbolize gay male victims. A non-inverted (base down, point up) triangle and/or a yellow triangle is generally more evocative of the Jewish victims.

Commemorative plaque at Mauthausen camp recalling the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses ("Zeugen Jehovas" in German)

Medals and honours

See also: Red inverted triangle § Service medals

• 
  P-triangle on the Polish medal for camp victims
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  B-triangle on the Belgian Political Prisoner's Cross

2020 Trump campaign

Main articles: Donald Trump 2020 presidential campaign § June 2020, and Trump 2020 § Political propositions

In June 2020, the re-election campaign of Donald Trump posted an advertisement on Facebook stating that "Dangerous MOBS of far-left groups are running through our streets and causing absolute mayhem" and identifying them as "ANTIFA", accompanied by a graphic of a downward-pointing red triangle. The 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 the number of ads – 88 – which is associated with neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

As an example of the public outcry against the use of the downward-pointing red triangle, as reported by MotherJones, the Twitter account (@jewishaction), the account of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, a Progressive Jewish site stated:

"The President of the United States is campaigning for reelection using a Nazi concentration camp symbol. Nazis used the red triangle to mark political prisoners and people who rescued Jews. Trump & the RNC are using it to smear millions of protestors.

Their masks are off. pic.twitter.com/UzmzDaRBup"

Facebook removed the campaign ads with the graphic, saying that its use in this context violated their policy against "organized hate". The Trump campaign's communications director wrote, "The red triangle is a common Antifa symbol used in an ad about Antifa." Historian Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, disputed this, saying that the symbol is not associated with Antifa in the United States.

Gaza war protests and military media

Some sources have suggested that the inverted red triangle symbol used by Hamas in its propaganda videos is reminiscent of the same red triangle used by the Nazis, with regards to antisemitism during the Gaza war. However, the Nazis used the inverted red triangle to identify prisoners with political views opposed to Nazism, not necessarily Jewish prisoners. The red inverted triangle was first used in the 1930s to mark German communists and Social Democrats, then during WWII the inverted red triangle was used to mark people who resisted the Nazi occupation of their countries by Nazi Germany. Refaat Alareer, David Rovics, and others have compared violent Palestinian resistance to uprisings in Warsaw Ghetto and Sobibor extermination camp in occupied Europe in WWII. However, news media suggested the symbol used in Palestinian propaganda independently originated from the red section on the Palestinian flag.

Images of memorials and other post-war use

• Some examples of camp triangle emblems on monuments and related uses
• 
  At Sachsenhausen
• 
  A Dora Todesmarsch (death march) roadside tablet marked only with the date and a red triangle
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  On the Klooga Jewish victims' memorial
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  On a Buchenwald Todesmarsch (death march) route historical marker
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  On a Sachsenhausen death march route historical marker
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  Monument (in the village of Grabow-Below) for Ravensbrück death march victims
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  On a Wöbbelin memorial stone
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  Boulder (in Lindenring) for 2,000 women victims of Ravensbrück
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  On a Cap Arcona incident memorial
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  At the Neustadt-Glewe concentration camp memorial
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  F-triangle at Mauthausen-Gusen honors French victims
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  F-triangle at Hinzert honors French victims, especially of the Nacht und Nebel program
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  On a monument to Neuengamme victims in Hamburg, where the letters KZ are not nationality-letters, but rather are the German abbreviation for Konzentrationslager
  (concentration camp)
• 
  On a memorial to victims killed at Genshagen (right panel), where the letters KZ are not nationality-letters but rather are the German abbreviation for Konzentrationslager
  (concentration camp)
• 
  P-triangle at a Zgorzelec memorial
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  Various badges on a Dachau memorial
• 
  Pink triangle (Rosa Winkel in German) memorial for gay men killed at Buchenwald
• 
  In the Berlin Nollendorfplatz subway station, a pink triangle plaque honors gay male victims.^
• 
  Amsterdam's Homomonument uses pink triangles symbolically to memorialize gay men killed in the Holocaust and also victims of anti-gay violence generally.
• 
  Memorial to French victims of Dachau Concentration Camp at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
• 
  Triangle emblem on the memorial to Nazi-era forced labor deaths at the truck factory in Zittau
• 
  Every year, a pink triangle is erected on Twin Peaks in San Francisco during Pride weekend.

See also

Related topics

• Committees for the Victims of Fascism (German: OdF-Ausschüsse)
• Dehumanisation – Behavior or process that undermines individuality of and in othersPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Identification of inmates in Nazi concentration camps
• LGBTQ symbols § Triangle badges of Nazi Germany
• German-occupied Europe – European countries occupied by Nazi Germany
• Resistance during World War II – Irregular forces in World War II
• Victims of Nazi Germany

Badge symbols

• Black triangle (badge) – Nazi concentration camp badge for "asocials"
• Brown triangle – Genocide against Romani in Europe during World War IIPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• P (Nazi symbol) – Sign for Polish workers during the NS-Regime in Nazi Germany
• Pink triangle – Symbol for the LGBTQIA+ community
• Purple triangle – Badge used in Nazi concentration camps to identify Jehovah's Witnesses
• Red triangle (badge) – Symbol of anti-fascism

References

Bibliography

• Plant, Richard (1988). The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals. Owl Books. ISBN 0-8050-0600-1.
• Gregson, Julie (4 August 2024). "Red triangle symbol: Germany debating a ban". Deutsche Welle. Interviews and quotes: Jens-Christian Wagner (director of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation); Ralf Michaels (director of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg); and the National Federation of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime, Resistance Fighters and Antifascists (VVN-BDA).
• "Camp badge chart". historyplace.
• "Additional camp badge chart". friends-partners.org.

External links

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