Nazi concentration camp badge

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.[1] 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.

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

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.

Badge coding system

Prisoners' distinguishing badges

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.

Single triangles

Double triangles

Double-triangle badges resembled two superimposed triangles forming a Star of David, a Jewish symbol.

  • Red inverted triangle superimposed upon a yellow one representing a Jewish political prisoner.
  • Blue inverted triangle superimposed upon a red one representing foreign forced labour and political prisoner (for example, Spanish Republicans in Mauthausen).[16]
  • Green inverted triangle superimposed upon a yellow one representing a Jewish habitual criminal.
  • Purple inverted triangle superimposed upon a yellow one representing a Jehovah's Witness of Jewish descent.
  • Pink inverted triangle superimposed upon a yellow one representing a Jewish "sexual offender", typically a gay or bisexual man or trans woman.
  • Black inverted triangle superimposed upon a yellow one representing an "asocial" or work-shy Jew.
  • Voided black inverted triangle superimposed over a yellow triangle representing a Jew convicted of miscegenation and labelled as a Rassenschänder (race defiler).
  • Yellow inverted triangle superimposed over a black triangle representing an "Aryan" woman convicted of miscegenation and labelled as a Rassenschänder (race defiler).

Like those who wore pink and green triangles, people in the bottom two categories would have been convicted in criminal courts.

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 (Belgier, Belgians)
  • E (Engländer, "English"; in practice used for all British)
  • F (Franzosen, French)
  • I (Italiener, Italians)
  • J[17] (Jugoslawen, Yugoslavs)
  • N (Niederländer, Dutch)
  • No (Norweger, Norwegian)
  • P (Polen, Poles)
  • S (republikanische Spanier, Republican Spanish)
  • T (Tscheche, Czechs)
  • U (Ungarn, Hungarians)
  • Z notation next to a black triangle (Zigeuner, Gypsy).

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) 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.

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.

Special marks

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

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. However, when the war began they were confined indefinitely for its duration.

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.

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.

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

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, but 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 (more common later in the war) instead of the striped uniforms were often marked with a prominent X on the back.[18] 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 would be compelled to sew their number and (if applicable) a triangle emblem onto the fronts of such X-ed clothing.[18]

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

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 Slavs, Poles, 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.

2020 Trump campaign

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.[20][21][22]

As an example of the public outcry against the use of the downward-pointing red triangle, as reported by MotherJones, the Twitter account (@jewishaction),[23] the account of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action,[24] 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"[25]

Facebook removed the campaign ads with the graphic, saying that its use in this context violated their policy against "organized hate".[26][27][28][29][30][31] The Trump campaign's communications director wrote that "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.[32]

References

Informational notes

  1. Johannes S. Wrobel (June 2006). "Jehovah's Witnesses in National Socialist Concentration Camps, 1933–45". Religion, State & Society. Vol. 34. No. 2. pp. 89–125. "The concentration camp prisoner category 'Bible Student' at times apparently included a few members from small Bible Student splinter groups, as well as adherents of other religious groups which played only a secondary role during the time of the National Socialist regime, such as Adventists, Baptists and the New Apostolic community (Garbe 1999, pp. 82, 406; Zeiger, 2001, p. 72). Since their numbers in the camps were quite small compared with the total number of Jehovah's Witness prisoners, I shall not consider them separately in this article. Historian Antje Zeiger (2001, p. 88) writes about Sachsenhausen camp: 'In May 1938, every tenth prisoner was a Jehovah's Witness. Less than one percent of the Witnesses included other religious nonconformists (Adventists, Baptists, pacifists), who were placed in the same prisoner classification.'"

Citations

  1. "The History Place – Holocaust Timeline: Nazis Open Dachau Concentration Camp". historyplace.com. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  2. Gabriele Hammermann, Stefanie Pilzweger-Steiner (2018) KZ-Gedenk·stätte Dachau: Ein Rund·gang in Leichter Sprache. p. 72
  3. Cristian Williams. "2008 Houston Transgender Day of Remembrance: Transgenders and Nazi Germany". tgdor.org. Archived from the original on 16 September 2018. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  4. "Canadian National Holocaust Monument / Studio Libeskind". arcspace.com. Archived from the original on 27 December 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  5. "Illuminating the Darkness". outsmartmagazine.com. November 2012. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  6. Richard Plant (1988). The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals. Owl Books. ISBN 0-8050-0600-1.
  7. "Nazi Persecution of the Mentally & Physically Disabled". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  8. "Glossary". jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  9. "Badges". holocaustrevealed.org. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  10. Edelheit, Abraham J.; Edelheit, Hershel (8 October 2018). History of the Holocaust. New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780429493737. ISBN 9780429493737. S2CID 160553505.
  11. Torrey, E. Fuller; Yolken, Robert H. (1 January 2010). "Psychiatric Genocide: Nazi Attempts to Eradicate Schizophrenia". Schizophrenia Bulletin. 36 (1): 26–32. doi:10.1093/schbul/sbp097. ISSN 0586-7614. PMC 2800142. PMID 19759092.
  12. Claudia Schoppmann (1990). Nationalsozialistische Sexualpolitik und weibliche Homosexualität. Dissertation, FU Berlin. Centaurus, Pfaffenweiler 1991 (revisited 2nd edition 1997). ISBN 3-89085-538-5
  13. "Black triangle women". 1 February 2001. Archived from the original on 12 February 2009. Retrieved 2 February 2008.
  14. Elman PhD, R. Amy (1996). "Triangles and Tribulations: The Politics of Nazi Symbols". Journal of Homosexuality. 30 (3): 1–11. doi:10.1300/J082v30n03_01. ISSN 0091-8369. PMID 8743114.
  15. Tuchman, Arleen Marcia (January 2011). "Diabetes and RACE A Historical Perspective". American Journal of Public Health. 101 (1): 24–33. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2010.202564. ISSN 0090-0036. PMC 3000712. PMID 21148711.
  16. "De Tomelloso a Mauthausen". entomelloso.com. 12 January 2017. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  17. J. Beoković (19 October 2009). "У Аушвицу, на вест о ослобођењу Београда". politika.rs (in Serbian). Retrieved 26 October 2018.
  18. Rochelle G. Saidel (2006). The Jewish Women of Ravensbrück Concentration Camp. p. 76. ISBN 9780299198640. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  19. Stein, Harry (2007). Buchenwald memorial (ed.). Konzentrationslager Buchenwald 1937-1945. Begleitband zur ständigen historischen Ausstellung (in German) (5th ed.). Göttingen: Wallstein-Verlag. pp. 81–83. ISBN 978-3-89244-222-6.
  20. Breland, Ali. "Nazis put this symbol on political opponents' arms. Now Trump is using it". Mother Jones. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  21. Morrison, Sara (18 June 2020). "Facebook takes down another Trump campaign ad, this time for Nazi imagery". Vox. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  22. Rodrigo, Chris Mills (18 June 2020). "Facebook takes down Trump ads featuring symbol used by Nazis to mark political prisoners". TheHill. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  23. "@jewishaction" on Twitter
  24. "Home". bendthearc.us.
  25. Breland, Ali. "Nazis put this symbol on political opponents' arms. Now Trump is using it". Mother Jones. Retrieved 22 December 2021.
  26. Shannon, Joel. "Nazis used red triangles to mark political prisoners. That symbol is why Facebook banned a Donald Trump reelection campaign ad". USA TODAY. Retrieved 22 December 2021.
  27. "The History of The Concentration Camp Badge in a Team Trump Ad For Facebook". Newsweek. 18 June 2020.
  28. Feldman, Ari (18 June 2020). "Facebook removes Trump ad that identifies Antifa with red triangle similar to Nazi symbol". The Forward.
  29. "Trump campaign accused of using a Nazi symbol in Facebook ad". The Daily Dot. 18 June 2020.
  30. "Facebook removes Trump ads for violating 'organized hate' policy". NBC News. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  31. Stanley-Becker, Isaac. "Facebook removes Trump ads with symbol once used by Nazis to designate political prisoners". Washington Post. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  32. Karni, Annie (18 June 2020). "Facebook removes Trump ads displaying symbol used by Nazis". The New York Times.

Bibliography

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