Cloth emblems; part of the system of identification in Nazi camps
Schematic of the triangle-based badge system in use at most Nazi concentration camps.
Badges, primarily triangles, were used in Nazi concentration camps in German-occupied countries to identify the reason the prisoners were there.[1] 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.
Main problem: all demographics listed for each color need a source. This section has multiple sources, but most key points don't have a clear attribution. Please put sources at the end of each dot point or sentence, if a sentence or dot point has multiple sources add a list or quote to each reference to clearly indicate which points it supports. When most of the key points have a source, remove this notice and use [citation needed] or [verification needed] to mark any that remain unsourced.
A red triangle pointing upwards was used for enemy POWs (Sonderhäftlinge,[citation needed] meaning special detainees), spies or traitors (Aktionshäftlinge, meaning activities detainees), or military deserters or criminals (Wehrmachtsangehörige, meaning Armed Forces members),[citation needed] and Strafbataillon.
Blue showed foreign forced laborers and emigrants.[11] This category included stateless people ("apatrides", Spanish: apátridas),[12]
Emigrants, people who had fled Nazi Germany and been arrested when they returned, including Jews and political opponents of the Nazi Party.[13]
Spanish prisoners at Mauthausen, who were marked with trees at other camps.[13]
Spanish refugees from Francoist Spain whose citizenship was revoked and emigrants to countries which were occupied by Nazi Germany or were under the German sphere of influence.[14]
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.[15]
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").[22]
Roma and Sinti.[17] 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.[16][28] Male Roma were later assigned a brown triangle.[29]
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.
Lesbians did not have their own specific category.[34] 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.
The WehrmachtStrafbataillon (punishment battalion) and SS Bewährungstruppe (probation company) were military punishment units. They consisted of Wehrmacht 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.[citation needed]
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.[clarification needed] 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.[citation needed]
Examples of the single triangle badges at Nazi camps
↑ Both triangles were inverted, so unlike the others, it does not form a six-pointed star.[36]
123 Like those who wore pink and green triangles, people in the bottom two categories would have been convicted in criminal courts.
Examples of the double triangle design
Marking codes used by the Nazis.
Sachsenhausen detainee's red political enemy triangle atop a yellow Jew triangle (lower left)
Part of a Dachau roll call – day badges visible on detainees
Sachsenhausen detainee with glasses in the foreground wears a two-colour ID-emblem
Disabled Jews with a black triangle on a yellow triangle, meaning asocial Jews, Buchenwald, 1938.
Coloured bars to show multiple categories
Liberated Neuengamme survivor standing on the right has a triangle patch with a top-bar
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 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.[citation needed]
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
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.[39] 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.[39]
Other distinguishing markings
Other distinguishing markings
Many markings and combinations existed. A prisoner would usually have at least two, and possibly more than six.[citation needed]
A Strafkompanie (punishment company) was a hard labour unit in the camps. Inmates assigned to it wore a black roundel bordered white under their triangle patch.[citation needed]
Fluchtverdächtiger (escape risk)
Prisoners "suspected of [attempting to] escape" (Fluchtverdächtiger) wore a red roundel bordered white under their triangle patch. If also assigned to hard labour, 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 organisation. 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 almost certain death at the hands of their fellow inmates.
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.^ Plate with concentration camp marking.
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:
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.[citation needed]
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^
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 organise 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 labour for six to eight weeks and were then released. It was hoped that the threat of permanent incarceration at hard labour would deter them from further action.[citation needed]
Police inmates (Polizeihäftlinge)
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.[citation needed]
Soviet prisoners of war (russische Kriegsgefangenen) assigned to work camps (Arbeitslager) wore two large letters SU (for sowjetischer Untermensch, meaning Soviet sub-human)[citation needed] 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 labour. Some joined Andrey Vlasov's Liberation Army to fight for Nazi Germany.[citation needed]
Labour education detainees (Arbeitserziehung Häftling)
Labour 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 labour camps.[citation needed]
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 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 coloured 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.[citation needed]
Anti-Fascist Action in the United Kingdom used the symbol in badges in the 80s, the one example showed the pointed red shape smashing a black swastika.[49][50]
Qassam Brigades (Arabic: كتئب القسام, romanized:Kataeb al-Qassam) have used an inverted red triangle (Arabic: المثلث الأحمر المقلوب) in their propaganda videos since November 2023.[57][58] The inverted red triangle was later included in the logo of their Military Media division.[59][60] Qassam differ from most of the other groups by being religious and nationalist. Most media have said Qassam's symbol has different origins (see below).
Ras l'front (RLF, English: "Fed up") use an inverted red triangle in some of their modern logos. For example: RLF Voiron[fr].[61][62]
United Left (Spanish: Izquierda Unida), Spain.[65][66][67] Their membership cards feature a red, green, and purple triangle.[68] Their Madrid office tweeted in 2021, "🔻The red triangle that we, the members of @IzquierdaUnida, wear on our lapels and in our Twitter handles commemorates the political prisoners in Nazi camps. It is an honor to share this symbol with other oppressed groups whose Holocaust we remember today".[69][70]
The simplicity of the red and pink triangles means the origin is sometimes ambiguous or disputed. Some of the above, such as Anti-Fascist Action, also resemble the red wedge from the 1919 Russian revolutionary propaganda poster Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge by El Lissitzky.[71] They are used somewhat interchangeably. The above are all used for an explicitly anti-Nazi, anti-fascist, or pro-resistance meaning. Some sources have said that Qassam's symbol originates from the Palestinian flag. The implied anti-Nazi and explicitly pro-resistance meaning of Qassam's using the symbol used to honour WWII resistance is controversial. Palestinian resistance is often labelled as terrorism by allies of the United States.[l] Qassam, and their civilian political wing (Hamas), have referred to the military forces occupying Palestine as Nazis since their founding documents; this was omitted in the revised version, which was much shorter.[72]
Service medals awarded to prisoners of war and other camp inmates after WWII feature the triangle that was used on prisoners' uniforms. Some also include the blue stripe of the prisoner uniforms as the ribbon design. The Auschwitz Cross, a Polish medal for camp victims and the Political Prisoner's Cross 1940–1945, a Belgian medal both show a red triangle with a nationality indicator, and the ribbons replicate the striped fabric of some camp uniforms.[73]
The Political Prisoner's Cross 1940–1945 (French: Croix du Prisonnier Politique 1940–1945, Dutch: Politieke Gevangenkruis 1940–1945) was a Belgian war medal established by royal decree of the Regent on 13 November 1947 and awarded to Belgian citizens arrested and interned by the Germans as political prisoners during the Second World War. The award's statute included provisions for posthumous award should the intended recipient not survive detention, and the right of the widow, the mother or the father of the deceased to wear the cross.[73]
From 1975 onwards, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR, also known as East Germany) released a medal for the "Committee of Antifascist Resistance Fighters" (KdAW, German: Komitee der Antifaschistischen Widerstandskämpfer) of the GDR that included a red triangle.[74] It was named German: Medaille des Komitees der antifaschistischen Widerstadskämpfer der DDR, lit.'Medal of the Committee of Anti-fascist Resistance Fighters of East Germany'.[74] They also had an anti-fascist medal with a different design, membership in the KdAW made one eligible to receive the Medal for Fighters Against Fascism.[75]
The Auschwitz Cross (Polish: Krzyż Oświęcimski), instituted on 14 March 1985, was a Polish decoration awarded to honour survivors of Nazi German concentration camps, including Auschwitz.[76] Auschwitz is a German name for the Polish town Oświęcim, where a complex of concentration camps was built by Nazi Germany during the German occupation of Europe during WWII. It was awarded generally to Poles, but it was possible to award it to foreigners in special cases. It could be awarded posthumously. It ceased to be awarded in 1999. An exception was made in the case of Greta Ferušić, who was awarded it in February 2004.[77] Some of the people awarded the medal were Jewish, including Szymon Kluger (Shimson Kleuger).[78]
Stories of queer holocaust victims were largely ignored until the 1990s.[79] There have been numerous variants, including the Silence=Death Project logo, usually a re-inverted symbols that point upright. Historically, the pink triangle was mostly used to mark gay men, but the Nazi party also persecuted transgender people, gender non-conforming people, and lesbians.[80] Gender non-conforming men were labelled with the pink triangle, while women (including lesbians) who did not conform to Nazi gender norms and nationalist pronatalism were usually labelled with the black triangle. Some lesbians were prominent in the original resistance, and thus they were labelled with the red triangle, such as Yvonne Ziegler and Suzanne Leclézio.
Memorials to the Queer victims, many of which feature the pink triangle were not erected until recently, most in the 21st century. The monument in Sydney was erected in 2001, and in Berlin (above) in 2008.[27]
Jean-Luc Mélenchon explained the meaning of the symbol, "I have been compared to the National Front. I was outraged. I said to myself, what could I wear? And someone, a Belgian, a comrade, said to me, 'Listen, I'll give you mine, it's the insignia of the communist deportees in the Nazi concentration camps'. And so I said: 'now I'm putting it on, I'm not taking it off' ... We forget this moment in history. But the first to be deported and massacred were the communists..." [82]
The yellow star, pink triangle, red triangle, and other symbols based on Nazi concentration camp badges have been used at protests and political rallies. Jewish variants of the anti-fascist symbol sometimes replicate the upside down tree triangle from the red and yellow badge used for Jewish political prisoners.[u] The yellow star was depicted at rallies in Israel and New York against Donald Trump's ban on Muslim immigration.[93][94][additional citation(s) needed] The red triangle was rarely used in this context except in Europe, this led to repeated confusion and in the 2020s. The red triangle was used ambiguously in Facebook ads for Donald Trump's 2020 presidential election campaign (see below). The red triangle allegedly got more common at protests in the United States during the Gaza war. This was frequently misinterpreted or misrepresented as a symbol of Nazi antisemitism. The Nazis used the symbol to mark political opponents in occupied Europe, not usually Jews, but sone argued the symbol was used in an antisemitic way if it was used to threaten non-Israeli Jews.[95]
Donald Trump's inauguration coincided with the avocado arrival of the AfD in Bundestag. Many independent protesters also used yellow stars and pink triangles. One controversial campaign against him in 2017 used multi coloured inverted triangle badges replicating the prisoner designations from Nazi Germany.[97][98][99][100]
In April 2017 Trump "vowed" to "combat antisemitism".[101]
Protest against Trump in February 2017 in front of the Stonewall Inn
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.[102][103][104]
As an example of the public outcry against the use of the downward-pointing red triangle, as reported by MotherJones, the Twitter account (@jewishaction),[105] the account of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action,[106] 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"[107]
Facebook removed the campaign ads with the graphic, saying that its use in this context violated their policy against "organised hate".[108][109][110][111][112][113] 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.[114]
Controversial uses of yellow stars
A member of the audience taunts Assembly Member Forrest Dunbar, who is Jewish, with a yellow Star of David at the September 29, 2021 Anchorage Assembly meeting about a proposed mask mandate.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many anti-vaccine and anti-lockdown protesters appropriated the Jewish yellow star from ghettos and concentration camps.
There had been prior uses of concentration camp symbols before the war. Symbols based on the reappropriation of the Nazi red triangle occasionally appeared in artworks and protests about Palestine before 2023 (see above).[u]
In late December 2023, Gilad Erdan, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, provoked controversy by wearing a yellow star at the assembly.[118] Erdan claimed that the October 7 Attacks was equivalent to Germany's genocide of Jews during The Holocaust in Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe.[119] The analogy was controversial.[120][bettersourceneeded] The Vad Yashem Holocaust Memorial chairperson Dani Dayan said, "This act belittles the victims of the Holocaust as well as the state of Israel,.. The yellow star symbolizes the helplessness of the Jewish people and their being at the mercy of others... We now have an independent state and a strong army. We are the masters of our own fate".[121]
In the first two weeks of the Gaza war European leftists, such as United Left in Spain, began using their own red triangle symbols on flyers promoting protests and other activism. Spain's United Left combined their red triangle symbol with the Palestinian flag on promotions for a protest that was held on 21 October 2023.[122]
Before the Gaza war, right-wing Western European sources have claimed that the red triangle has anti-Jewish connotations for focusing on the non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust.[123][bettersourceneeded]
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-Romani convict with multiple convictions, serving in a Strafkompanie (penal unit) and who is suspected of trying to escape.
↑ United States Army photo of Austrian economist and financial specialist Benedikt Kautsky[de], a political prisoner, who was liberated from Buchenwald.
↑The concept of an official transgender identity did not exist at this time. A majority of these people would likely identify as transgender if they lived in the modern era. See Transvestite pass for more information on how they were classified.
↑German: Komitee der antifaschistischen Widerstandskämpfer.
↑Italian: Associazione nazionale ex deportati nei campi nazisti, lit.'National Association of Former Nazi Camp Deportees'.
↑ Note: as of 2023-06-08 their page-long French language definition of Anti-Semitism made no mention of either Israel or Zionism, see also: IHRA definition of antisemitism.[64]
↑ Image from a protest in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony in 2021. The banner says "crash the party" (in English) with Nationalismus ist keine Alternative (NIKA, English: Nationalism is not an alternative) underneath, and had been used at earlier protests as well.[56]
12 the letters KZ are not nationality-letters, but rather are the German abbreviation for Konzentrationslager (concentration camp)
↑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.'"
123Julie Gregson (4 August 2024). "Red triangle symbol: Germany debating a ban". Deutsche Welle. After the end of World War II in 1945, the persecuted survivors, their relatives and supporters embraced the symbol as a badge of honor for the fight against fascism — primarily in Germany, but also right across Europe. Likewise, the gay rights movement subsequently reclaimed the Nazi pink triangle.
123456"Identification Badges in the Holocaust"(PDF). hcofpgh.org. Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. Archived from the original(PDF) on 19 May 2021. Red Triangle: Political prisoners: social democrats, socialists, trade unionists, communists, and anarchists
12345678"Qué significa el triángulo rojo invertido con el que han prometido su cargo Iglesias y Garzón"[What does the inverted red triangle with which Iglesias and Garzón swore their oath of office mean?]. Nius Diario www.niusdiario.es (in Spanish). Madrid: Telecinco. 13 January 2020. Archived from the original on 14 January 2020. El nuevo vicepresidente segundo del Gobierno, Pablo Iglesias, y el nuevo ministro de Consumo, Alberto Garzón, han tomado posesión de sus cargos este lunes portando en la solapa de sus chaquetas un pin del triángulo rojo invertido, que simboliza la lucha antifascista... El color rojo fue elegido inicialmente por los nazis para identificar a los comunistas, pero luego fue usado también para demócratas, liberales, masones, anarquistas y posteriormente a antifascistas y otros opositores políticos. Con el fin de la guerra, el triángulo rojo invertido se convirtió en un símbolo de antifascismo y de memoria de los prisioneros políticos que murieron en los campos de concentración. Este triángulo rojo es ahora utilizado por la izquierda radical como un símbolo antifascista.[The new second vice president of the Government, Pablo Iglesias, and the new Minister of Consumer Affairs, Alberto Garzón, took office this Monday wearing on their jacket lapels an inverted red triangle pin , which symbolizes the anti-fascist struggle... The color red was initially chosen by the Nazis to identify communists, but it was later also used for democrats, liberals, Freemasons, anarchists, and subsequently for anti-fascists and other political opponents. With the end of the war, the inverted red triangle became a symbol of anti-fascism and a memorial to the political prisoners who died in concentration camps. This red triangle is now used by the radical left as an anti-fascist symbol.]
↑"Freemasonry and the Holocaust". www.pglglasgow.org.uk. Archived from the original on 22 February 2024. Inverted Red Triangle Worn By Imprisoned Freemasons... The people in the concentration camps wore a mark to show the guards of the camps what kind of prisoner each individual was. The Freemasons were considered political prisoners and had to wear inverted red triangles on their shirts and pants to identify them as such. it is rumored that Freemasons identified each other by these red triangles on their clothing, and there is also the speculation that Freemasons wore the edelweiss or blue forget me not on their lapel to identify each other; however, there is no hard evidence of either of these being true other than word to mouth passed down through the generations.
↑Yaari, Yoel (15 March 2025). "Testimonies From Auschwitz Reveal a Network of Women Who Saved Lives and Prepared for Rebellion". Haaretz. Anna Heilman, who was herself a member of the Union underground (she was the sister of Ester Wajsblum, who was hanged with her three comrades), wrote in her memoirs: נשים מחנה אושוויץ שואה Women at Auschwitz. Credit: Yad Vashem Archive "Though this group consisted only of Jewish girls, there was one girl who wore a red triangle on her number, identifying her as a Pole. She was Jewish, but had succeeded in maintaining her false identity as a non-Jew. This girl was either directly involved with the Polish Underground or was close enough to them to have gained their confidence. She used to supply us with current political news…
↑"System of triangles / Prisoner classification / History / Auschwitz-Birkenau". www.auschwitz.org. Archived from the original on 23 December 2025. Green triangles marked "criminal" prisoners (Berufsverbrecher - BV), imprisoned as a direct consequence of committing a forbidden act, or after release from prison in cases where the criminal police regarded the sentence imposed by the court as too lenient. Prisoners in this category were mostly Germans.
12"Qué significa el triángulo rojo invertido con el que han prometido su cargo Iglesias y Garzón"[What does the inverted red triangle with which Iglesias and Garzón swore their oath of office mean?]. Nius Diario www.niusdiario.es (in Spanish). Madrid: Telecinco. 13 January 2020. Archived from the original on 14 January 2020. Entre quienes llevaron el triángulo rojo en Buchenwald estuvo el escritor Jorge Semprún que fue ministro de cultura de España con Felipe González entre 1988 y 1991. Y entre los que lo llevaron en Sachsenhausen estuvo el sindicalista y político marxista Largo Caballero, prisionero de los nazis desde 1943. En la parte alta de la estela se encuentra el triángulo rojo con una S distintivo de los deportados políticos españoles. Distintivos nazis para los prisioneros de los campos de concentración Se ha documentado el paso de más de siete mil republicanos españoles en Mauthausen, pero en dicho campo no estaban marcados con triángulos rojos sino con triángulos azules como "apátridas" (los exiliados republicanos españoles), para seguir las indicaciones de Franco.[Among those who wore the red triangle in Buchenwald was the writer Jorge Semprún, who was Spain's Minister of Culture under Felipe González between 1988 and 1991. And among those who wore it in Sachsenhausen was the trade unionist and Marxist politician Largo Caballero, a prisoner of the Nazis since 1943. At the top of the stele is the red triangle with an S, the distinctive mark of Spanish political deportees. Nazi badges for prisoners in concentration camps The passage of more than seven thousand Spanish republicans through Mauthausen has been documented, but in that camp they were not marked with red triangles but with blue triangles as "stateless" (the Spanish republican exiles), to follow Franco's instructions.]
12"The Transfer of Spanish Prisoners, 9 August, 1940". www.vscw.ca. Archived from the original on 15 May 2025. One of the most striking things about the Spanish prisoners who arrived at Mauthausen was that most of them wore a blue triangle with the letter S (spanier) sewn into the middle. In theory, this indicated that they were "emigrants" or "stateless" Spaniards. This did not fully correspond to the original meaning of the symbol, which had been created to designate Jews or political refugees who had fled Germany after the Nazis came to power but had been arrested when they returned to the country. This anomaly was unique to Mauthausen since in all the other camps Spaniards were given the red triangle of political prisoners.
↑Gabriele Hammermann, Stefanie Pilzweger-Steiner (2018) KZ-Gedenk·stätte Dachau: Ein Rund·gang in Leichter Sprache. p. 72
1234"System of triangles / Prisoner classification / History / Auschwitz-Birkenau". www.auschwitz.org. Archived from the original on 23 December 2025. Black triangles marked "asocial" prisoners (Asoziale - Aso), imprisoned in theory for vagrancy or prostitution, but in fact for a wide range of other deeds or behaviors, loosely and arbitrarily interpreted by the police. The Roma in the Birkenau "Gypsy camp" were classified as asocial.
↑"Nazi Persecution of Queer People". Pink Triangle Legacies Project. Queer women and trans people were sent to concentration camps, too, though it is difficult to ascertain comprehensive statistics since the SS did not label them as distinct prisoner groups. Trans and gender nonconforming people were treated based on their sex assigned at birth. Most lesbians were sent to Ravensbrück, the concentration camp for women, where they were often labeled as "asocials" and assigned a black triangle.
↑Richard Plant (1988). The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals. Owl Books. ISBN0-8050-0600-1.
↑"Nazi Persecution of Queer People". Pink Triangle LP. Pink Triangle Legacies Project. Archived from the original on 17 April 2024. Some scholars have argued that because lesbians and transgender people were not targeted by specific laws and did not have their own separate prisoner category (and corresponding colored triangle), they were not really persecuted. This stance is dangerous because it relies on viewing this history through the Nazis' own intentions and classification system to explain the experiences of the victims. The fact that lesbians and trans people were labeled as asocials rather than under their own separate category does not change that they were imprisoned and persecuted in concentration camps. The Nazi persecution of queer women and trans people was different from the Nazi persecution of queer men, but it was persecution nonetheless.
12"De Tomelloso a Mauthausen – 12/01/2017 – Tribuna Feria de TomellosoTribuna"[From Tomelloso to Mauthausen 12/01/2017 – Grandstand – Tomelloso Fair]. entomelloso.com (in Spanish). 12 January 2017. Archived from the original on 5 December 2025. Triangulo azul que los presos españoles llevaban cosido en su camisa y que les identificaba como «Republikanische Spanier»[Blue triangle that Spanish prisoners wore sewn on their shirts and that identified them as "Republican Spaniards"]
↑"Classification System in Nazi Concentration Camps". Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). From 1938, Jews in the camps were identified by a yellow star sewn onto their prison uniforms, a perversion of the Jewish Star of David symbol. After 1939 and with some variation from camp to camp, the categories of prisoners were easily identified by a marking system combining a colored inverted triangle with lettering.
↑Silver, Steve (16 August 2024). "Berlin and the red triangle". Searchlight. It wasn't only in Germany that the red triangle was an anti-fascist symbol. It was also an anti-fascist symbol in Britain. Anti-Fascist Action used the symbol in the 1980s with the red triangle piercing a swastika (right). That particular image harked back to early Soviet propaganda. In 1918 Nikolai Kolli … The avant-garde Russian Jewish artist El Lissitsky echoed that sculpture in his famous "Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge" poster, some arguing that the slogan was chosen to counter the Russian pogromist slogan "Bej zhidov!" ("Beat the Jews").
12 The banner says "crash the party" (in English) and then in German underneath Nationalismus ist keine Alternative (English: Nationalism is not an alternative). The gallery of this story includes an image of the full banner with the same design at a protest in 2019: Nasr, Joseph (1 December 2019). "German far-right AfD party elects new leader backed by radical wing". Reuters. photo credit: Fabian Bimmer. [2/6] Demonstrators hold a banner during an anti-AfD protest ahead of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party meeting in Braunschweig, Germany, 30 November 2019
↑هل تفوق إعلام القسام على الاحتلال خلال عام من الحرب على غزة؟[Has Qassam's media outperformed the occupation during the year of war on Gaza?]. aljazeera.net. Archived from the original on 8 October 2024. وكان من أبرز ما لمع وارتبط اسمه وشكله بعمليات القسام هو "المثلث الأحمر المقلوب" فمنذ عام وكتائب عز الدين القسام الجناح العسكري لحركة حماس تستخدمه في عملياتها. ودائما ما كان يُرفق "المثلث الأحمر المقلوب" لتحديد المركبات والجنود الإسرائيليين الذين يتم إيقاعهم بالكمائن أو استهدافهم من قبل قناصي القسام في مقاطع الفيديو التي توثق المعارك المستمرة في قطاع غزة … لدرجة أن المثلث الأحمر المقلوب أصبح رمزا من رموز النضال الفلسطيني ضد الاحتلال، مما جعل مجلس النواب في العاصمة الألمانية برلين يصنّف رمز المثلث المقلوب من الرموز الممنوع استخدامها في المظاهرات والتجمعات المناصرة للقضية الفلسطينية والمنددة بالحرب الإسرائيلية على غزة.[The "inverted red triangle" has always been attached to identify Israeli vehicles and soldiers ambushed or targeted by Qassam snipers in videos documenting the ongoing battles in the Gaza Strip. To the point that the inverted red triangle has become a symbol of the Palestinian struggle against the occupation, the German parliament in Berlin has classified the inverted triangle as a symbol prohibited from use in demonstrations and gatherings supporting the Palestinian cause and denouncing the Israeli war on Gaza.]
↑"L'Extême droite c'est toujours NON en fait!". www.youtube.com/@territoiresdelamemoire4559 (in French). Territoires de la Mémoire. 8 May 2024 – via YouTube. Nous restons fermement décidés à défendre, promouvoir et construire un monde solidaire, inconditionnellement antiraciste, antisexiste, et dénonçant toutes les formes de discriminations. 🔻 Non à la haine 🔻 Non à l'extrême droite 🔻 Portons Le Triangle Rouge 🔻 www.trianglerouge.be 🔻[We remain firmly committed to defending, promoting and building a world of solidarity, unconditionally anti-racist, anti-sexist, and denouncing all forms of discrimination. 🔻 No to hatred 🔻 No to the far right 🔻 Let's Wear the Red Triangle 🔻][excessivequote]
↑"Glossaire - Antisémitisme"[Glossary - Anti-Semitism]. trianglerouge.be. Triangle Rouge. Archived from the original on 8 June 2023. [Because the time, the nineteenth century, was at the explanation of the world by the scientific theory of races, the age-old hatred and rejection of Jews in Europe changed register, passing from religion to science: anti-Judaism (religious hatred) became anti-Semitism (racial hatred). "Between 1789 and 1815, Jews had been emancipated in most Western countries, and now aspired to become citizens like others. (...) Now, in the age of science, the theological argument of the curse was no longer appropriate to demand the re-establishment of the ghettos, and so it was that (Jews as a religious group were) transmuted, in the aftermath of its emancipation, into the "inferior" Semitic race... And if the "racial" dimension of contemporary anti-Semitism can be considered marginal, the fact remains that xenophobia against Jewish people remains a particular and almost unique case of a xenophobia that has its roots deep in the famous "ineradicable feelings and resentments of the Christian West".]
↑"IU Madrid🔻". 27 January 2021. 🔻El triángulo rojo que lucimos en la solapa y en el nombre de twitter las compañeras de @IzquierdaUnida, recuerda a los prisioneros políticos en campos nazis. Es un orgullo compartir símbolo con otros colectivos optimised, cuyo holocausto recordamos hoy.[🔻The red triangle that we, the members of @IzquierdaUnida, wear on our lapels and in our Twitter handles commemorates the political prisoners in Nazi camps. It is an honor to share this symbol with other oppressed groups whose Holocaust we remember today.]
12[full citation needed]Royal Decree of the Regent of 13 November 1947 creating the Croix du Prisonnier Politique 1940–1945 (Report). Belgian Defence Ministry. 13 November 1947.
↑"Statut der "Medaille für Kämpfer gegen den Faschismus 1933-1945" [Statute of the "Medal for Fighters against Fascism 1933-1945"]. Gesetzblatt der DDR [Law Gazette of the German Democratic Republic] (in German). 1: 198. 22 February 1958.
↑"Auschwitz Cross". Polin – Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
↑"Szymon Kluger's Auschwitz Cross". Archived from the original on 14 July 2025. Instituted by Poland in 1985, the Auschwitz Cross is a decoration awarded to honour survivors of Nazi German concentration camps. Szymon Kluger (1925–2000), the last Jewish resident of Oświęcim, was presented with the Auschwitz Cross on 27 September 1989. Szymon Kluger was one of the Jewish residents of Oświęcim who survived the Holocaust and eventually returned to their hometown
↑Sojo, José Rodríguez (13 January 2020). "¿Qué significa el pin con el que Pablo Iglesias y Alberto Garzón han prometido su cargo?". elconfidencial.com (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 14 January 2020. Ambos han prometido su cargo vestidos con camisa y chaqueta sin corbata. Sobre sus solapas portaban un pin con forma de triángulo rojo invertido, un símbolo que hace referencia a la marca con la que los nazis identificaban a los presos políticos en los campos de concentración, teniendo en cuenta que muchos de ellos fueron específicamente erigidos para confinar a los comunistas y socialdemócratas alemanes. Detalle del símbolo en la solapa de Pablo Iglesias. (Reuters) Detalle del símbolo en la solapa de Pablo Iglesias. (Reuters) No es la primera vez que Garzón luce este emblema de la lucha antifascista, habitual entre muchos dirigentes de Izquierda Unida en actos públicos. Él mismo explicaba su significado en 2016, con motivo del aniversario de la liberación de Mauthausen: "Nuestra militancia diaria es en parte un homenaje a todos los que fueron, para que hoy podamos ser y un esfuerzo para que otros sigan siendo. Sin memoria, no habrá futuro".[Both took their oaths of office wearing shirts and jackets without ties. On their lapels, they wore pins in the shape of inverted red triangles , a symbol referencing the mark the Nazis used to identify political prisoners in concentration camps, many of which were specifically erected to confine German communists and social democrats. Detail of the symbol on Pablo Iglesias' lapel. (Reuters) Detail of the symbol on Pablo Iglesias' lapel. (Reuters) This is not the first time Garzón has worn this emblem of the anti-fascist struggle, a common sight among many leaders of United Left at public events. He himself explained its meaning in 2016, on the anniversary of the liberation of Mauthausen: "Our daily activism is partly a tribute to all those who came before , so that we may be who we are today, and an effort to ensure that others continue to be. Without memory, there will be no future".]
↑"March Against Racism and Fascism". flickr.com. The All-Nite Images. 16 March 2019. Archived from the original on 14 September 2025 – via flickr. Multiple group action regarding Fascism in general and the 15th March 2016 New Zealand Mosque Terrorist Attack in particular. (Metadata: Uploaded on 17 March 2019, Taken on 16 March 2019)
↑Tim Pierce. "step one to genocide". www.flickr.com. Archived from the original on 17 January 2019. Sign with a yellow "Jude" Star of David: "Registration: Step One to Genocide / Jews in Solidarity With Muslims"
↑"Holocaust Cartoon Contest In Iran - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. 7 February 2006. Archived from the original on 21 September 2025. A prominent Iranian newspaper says it is going to hold a competition for cartoons on the Holocaust to test whether the West will apply the principle of freedom of expression to the Nazi genocide against Jews as it did to the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. Hamshahri, which is among the top five of Iran's mass circulation papers, made clear the contest is a reaction to European newspapers' publication of Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, which have led to demonstrations, boycotts and attacks on European embassies across the Islamic world.
↑"Australian in Iran cartoon 'hoax'". 14 February 2006. Archived from the original on 10 January 2007. Iran's competition was launched in response to the publication in Europe of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.
↑"Israel UN envoy draws criticism for donning yellow star". www.dw.com. Germany. 31 October 2023. Archived from the original on 31 October 2023. The head of Israel's Vad Yashem Holocaust Memorial says the act "belittles" victims of the Holocaust... "This act belittles the victims of the Holocaust as well as the state of Israel," Yad Vashem chairperson Dani Dayan said in a Hebrew-language post on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday. "The yellow star symbolizes the helplessness of the Jewish people and their being at the mercy of others," he said. "We now have an independent state and a strong army. We are the masters of our own fate."
↑Vicente Herrero Carreter (19 October 2023). "Sociedad: IU y Podemos se manifestarán en Aranda de Duero contra el genocidio de Gaza: La Plaza del Trigo acoge este sábado a mediodía una concentración en solidaridad con el pueblo palestino"[Society: IU and Podemos will demonstrate in Aranda de Duero against the Gaza genocide: The Plaza del Trigo hosts this Saturday at noon a rally in solidarity with the Palestinian people]. cadenaser.com Cadena SER (in Catalan and Spanish). Archived from the original on 18 January 2026. Convocamos una concentración en solidaridad con el pueblo palestino, por la paz y el fin del genocidio en Gaza. El sábado 21 de octubre, a las 13 horas, en la Plaza del Trigo de Aranda de Duero.[We are calling for a rally in solidarity with the Palestinian people, for peace and an end to the genocide in Gaza. It will take place on Saturday, October 21st, at 1 p.m. in the Plaza del Trigo in Aranda de Duero.]
↑Gregson 2024: "From the mid-1930s, political prisoners were forced to wear cloth badges with the triangle... "At first, the majority of political inmates were German Social Democrats or Communists and the red of the triangle referred to their party colors', Jens-Christian Wagner, the director of the Buchenwald… told DW. Later, he explained, most were non-Germans from across the political spectrum who had opposed National Socialism or Nazi Germany's occupation of their countries."
↑Gregson 2024: "A red triangle — though not inverted — also appears, however, in the Palestinian flag, which derives from a 1916 pan-nationalist design."
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
![Austrian economist Benedikt Kautsky [de], a Political prisoner, liberated from Buchenwald. Benedikt Kautsky.jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/Benedikt_Kautsky.jpg/250px-Benedikt_Kautsky.jpg)
![Badge for a Polish (non-Jewish) political prisoner (ID 29659), Lidia Glowczewska [pl], in Stutthof. Numer obozowy KL Stutthof 29659.JPG](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/Numer_obozowy_KL_Stutthof_29659.JPG/500px-Numer_obozowy_KL_Stutthof_29659.JPG)
