Nazi concentration camp badges

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. 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 were 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; the use of a triangle being a sort of visual shorthand to symbolize all camp victims. Also, the modern day use of a pink triangle emblem to symbolize gay rights is a response to the camp identification patches.

Badge coding system
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

 * Red triangle—political prisoners: social democrats, socialists, trade unionists, Freemasons, communists, and anarchists.
 * Green triangle— "professional criminals" (convicts, often working in the camps as Kapos).
 * Blue triangle—foreign forced laborers, emigrants.
 * Purple triangle—Jehovah's Witnesses, though a very small number of pacifists and members of other religious organizations were also imprisoned under this classification. (The German term Bibelforscher has sometimes been misinterpreted as "Bible Students" in general; however, Bibelforscher was a name German-speaking Jehovah's Witnesses formerly gave themselves.)
 * Pink triangle—sexual offenders, mostly homosexual men but rarely rapists, zoophiles and paedophiles.
 * Black triangle—people who were deemed "asocial elements" and "work shy" including
 * Roma (Gypsies), who were later assigned a brown triangle
 * The mentally ill
 * Alcoholics
 * Vagrants and beggars
 * Pacifists
 * Conscription resisters
 * Lesbians
 * Prostitutes
 * Some anarchists
 * Drug addicts
 * Brown triangle—Roma (Gypsies) (previously wore the black triangle).
 * Uninverted red triangle—an enemy POW, spy or a deserter.

People who wore the green and pink triangles were convicted in criminal courts and may have been transferred to the criminal prison systems after the camps were liberated.

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


 * Two superimposed yellow triangles, the "Yellow badge"—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 Jehovah's Witness of Jewish descent
 * Pink inverted triangle superimposed upon a yellow one—a Jewish "sexual offender"
 * Black inverted triangle superimposed upon a yellow one—"asocial" and "work shy" Jews
 * Voided black inverted triangle superimposed over a yellow triangle—a Jew convicted of miscegenation and labelled as a "race defiler"
 * Yellow inverted triangle superimposed over a black triangle—an Aryan (woman) convicted of miscegenation and labelled as a "race defiler"

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

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

Also, repeated offenders would receive bars over their stars or triangles, a different colour for a different crime.
 * A political prisoner would have a red bar over his/her star or triangle
 * A professional criminal would have a green bar
 * A foreign forced laborer would have a blue bar
 * 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
 * A Roma (Gypsy) would have a brown bar

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

Some camps assigned Nacht und Nebel prisoners with two large 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.

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. 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.

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, gays, Roma (see Porajmos), the handicapped (see Action T4), and Soviet POWs. 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.