Badges, primarily triangles, were used in Nazi concentration camps in German-occupied countries to identify the reason the prisoners were there. The triangles were made of fabric and were sewn onto the prisoners' jackets and trousers. These were mandatory and intended as badges of shame. They had specific meanings indicated by their colour and shape. Guards used such emblems to assign tasks to the detainees. For example, a guard, at a glance, could see if someone was a convicted criminal (green patch) and might assume they had a tough temperament suitable for kapo duty.

Someone wearing a badge indicating a suspected escape attempt was usually not assigned to work squads operating outside the camp fence. Someone wearing an "F" could be called upon to help translate a guard's 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 visual shorthand to symbolise all camp victims.

The modern-day use of a pink triangle emblem to symbolise 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 groups include 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

Variability

The system varied between camps and over time. Dachau concentration camp had one of the more elaborate systems.

Single triangles

Triangle Prisoner categories Red upright A red triangle pointing upwards was used for enemy POWs (, meaning special detainees), spies or traitors (, meaning activities detainees), or military deserters or criminals (, meaning Armed Forces members), and Strafbataillon. Red inverted

The red inverted triangle was used for political prisoners, including:

The Nazi Party's political opponents, starting in Germany: Communists Social democrats Democrats Socialists Liberals Trade unionists Anarchists Anti-fascists Freemasons See also: and Grand Anti-Masonic Exhibition. Occupied country resistance members (partisans) including: Jewish women in the resistance who were operating under false identities. Gentiles who assisted Jews such as Some lesbians and members of other marginalised groups such as Yvonne Ziegler and Suzanne Leclézio. Green Green indicated convicts and criminals (Berufsverbrecher - BV) Often working as kapos. Blue Blue showed foreign forced laborers and emigrants. This category included stateless people ("apatrides", ),

Emigrants, people who had fled Nazi Germany and been arrested when they returned, including Jews and political opponents of the Nazi Party. Spanish prisoners at Mauthausen, who were marked with trees at other camps.

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.Gabriele Hammermann, Stefanie Pilzweger-Steiner (2018) KZ-Gedenk·stätte Dachau: Ein Rund·gang in Leichter Sprache. p. 72 Brown Brown was 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 The black triangle indicated people who were deemed asocial elements ()

Including the following:

Mentally ill and developmentally disabled. Their triangles were additionally inscribed with the word , meaning "stupid". Schizophrenic and epileptic people were forcibly sterilized, shot, or gassed in psychiatric institutions as opposed to at the Nazi camps. 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"). Alcoholics drug addicts Work-shy () Vagrants and beggars. Pacifists and conscription resisters. Female prostitutes Female sex workersClaudia Schoppmann (1990). Nationalsozialistische Sexualpolitik und weibliche Homosexualität. Dissertation, FU Berlin. Centaurus, Pfaffenweiler 1991 (revisited 2nd edition 1997). . Lesbian women Roma and Sinti. They wore the black triangle with a Z notation (for , 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. Swingjugend Purple

Purple was mostly used for Jehovah's Witnesses (over 99%) as well as members of other small pacifist religious groups.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.'" Pink Pink primarily indicated 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.Richard Plant (1988). The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals. Owl Books. . Many in this group were subject to forced sterilization.

Asoziale (anti-socials)

(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.

Lesbian prisons

Lesbians did not have their own specific category. Women (including lesbians) who did not conform to Nazi gender norms (such as nationalist pronatalism) were usually labelled with the black triangle of asocials. Some lesbians were prominent in the original resistance, and thus they were labelled with the red triangle, such as Yvonne Ziegler and Suzanne Leclézio.

Wehrmacht Strafbataillon

The (punishment battalion) and SS (probation company) were military punishment units. They consisted of and SS military criminals, SS personnel convicted by an Honour Court of bad conduct, and civilian criminals for whom military service was either the assigned punishment or a voluntary replacement of imprisonment. They wore regular uniforms and were forbidden from wearing a 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.

Limited preventative custody

Limited preventative custody detainee (, 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.

Examples of the single triangle badges at Nazi camps

Double triangles and multiple colours

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 Nazi-established ghettos.

Colour combinations for double triangles Inverted triangle Overlayed on Person Other prisoner categories Blue A red inverted triangle to form a redborder Represented a foreign forced labour and political prisoner, such as Spanish Republicans in Mauthausen. Yellow An upright yellow triangle to form a . 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", Black An "asocial" or work-shy Jew. ▽ Black (voided) A Jew convicted of miscegenation and labelled as a (race defiler). Yellow An upright blacktriangle An "Aryan" woman

Examples of the double triangle design

Coloured bars to show multiple categories

Repeat offenders (, 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 imprisonment 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 triangle pointed down 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.

Civilian clothing

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 colour. Detainees were compelled to sew their number and if applicable, a triangle emblem onto the fronts of such X-ed clothing.

Other distinguishing markings

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

Strafkompanie (punishment company)

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

Fluchtverdächtiger (escape risk)

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

Funktionshäftling (prisoner-functionary)