Nazi concentration camp badges

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A chart, circa 1938 - 1942, of prisoner markings used in German concentration camps.

Nazi concentration camp badges, primarily triangles, were part of the system of Identification in Nazi camps. They were used in the concentration camps in the Nazi-occupied countries to identify the reason the prisoners had been placed there. ^[1] The triangles were made of fabric and were sewn on jackets and shirts of the prisoners. These mandatory badges of shame had specific meanings indicated by their color and shape.

The system of badges varied between the camps, and in the latter stages of the war, 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.

1 Badge coding system
2 Table of camp inmate markings
3 Notes
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Badge coding system

Dutch Jews wearing a yellow star and the letter "N" for Niederländer at the Buchenwald concentration camp.

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.

The most common forms of the badge were:

Red triangle: political prisoners (Social Democrats, Communists, Freemasons, anarchists - some anarchists were also given the black triangle - and other "enemies of the state")
Green triangle: "career criminals" "habitual criminals" (ofttimes Kapos)
Blue triangle: Foreign Forced Laborers
Pink triangle: homosexual men and sexual offenders.^[2]
Purple triangle: religious dissenters (Jehovah's Witnesses, Bible Student movement members, Quakers, Seventh-day Adventists)
Black triangle: so-called "Asocial elements" (Roma - later given a Brown triangle), mentally retarded, alcoholics, vagrants, the habitually "work-shy", or prostitutes^[3]^[4], some anarchists).
Brown triangle: Roma (previously wore the Black Triangle)^[5]

Double triangles: two superimposed triangles forming a Star of David:

Two superimposed yellow triangles: a Jew.
Red inverted triangle superimposed upon a yellow one: a Jewish political prisoner.
Green inverted triangle upon a yellow one: a Jewish "habitual criminal".
Purple inverted triangle superimposed upon a yellow one: a religious dissident of Jewish descent.^[6]
Pink inverted triangle superimposed upon a yellow one: a Jewish homosexual.
Yellow triangle superimposed over a black inverted triangle, or "voided" black inverted triangle superimposed over a yellow triangle: an Aryan convicted of miscegenation and labeled as a "race defiler".

In addition to color-coding, some groups had to put letter insignia on their triangles to denote country of origin. Red triangle with a letter: "B" (Belgier, Belgians), "F" (Franzosen, French), "H" (Holländer, Dutch), "I" (Italiener, Italians), "N" (Norweger, Norwegians), "P" (Polen, Poles), "S" (Republikanische Spanier, Republican Spanish) "T" (Tschechen, Czechs), "U" (Ungarn, Hungarians).

There were many markings and combinations. A prisoner would typically have at least two, and possibly more than six.

In some camps the Nacht und Nebel prisoners got painted with two big letters NN in yellow.

Penal battalion, penal company, etc., are military units consisting of convicted persons for which military service was either the assigned punishment or a voluntary replacement of imprisonment.

[edit] Table of camp inmate markings

	Political Enemies	Habitual Criminals	Foreign Forced Laborers	Religious dissidents	Homoexuals & Sex-Offenders	"Asocials"	Roma^[7]‎
Basic colors
Markings for Repeaters
Inmates of Penal Battalions
Markings for Jews

Special Markings	Jewish Race Defiler	female Race Defiler	Escape Suspect	Inmate Number Special Inmate: Brown arm band		Applicable marks were worn in descending order as follows: Inmate Number, Repeater Bar, Triangle or Star, Member of Penal Battalion, Escape Suspect
	Pole: "P" on a red triangle	Czech: "T" (the German word for Czech is Tscheche) on a red triangle	Member of the Armed forces: Red triangle

[edit] Notes

^ http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-dach-early.htm
^ Plant, The Pink Triangle.
^ Claudia Schoppmann: Nationalsozialistische Sexualpolitik und weibliche Homosexualität (Dissertation, FU Berlin, 1990.) Centaurus, Pfaffenweiler 1991 (revisited 2nd edition 1997). ISBN 3-89085-538-5
^ Black triangle women (html) (2001-02-01). Retrieved on 2008-02-02.
^ Jewish Virtual Museum: Badges
^ Note that since "Jew" was defined along "racial" lines, e.g. by the Nuremberg Laws, Jews could be classified as religious dissidents, e.g. as Bible Student movement members.
^ The Holocaust History Museum