Nazi concentration camp badges, made primarily of inverted triangles, 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 shirts of the prisoners. These mandatory badges had specific meanings indicated by their color and shape.

Badge coding system

---

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.

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), "I" (Italiener, Italians), "P" (Polen, Poles), "S" (Republikanische Spanier, Republican Spanish) "T" (Tschechen, Czechs), "U" (Ungarn, Hungarians).

The most common forms of the badge were:

• Black inverted triangle
  • Alcoholics
  • Vagrants, the Habitually "Work-Shy".
  • Roma and Sinti (later forced to wear the Brown Triangle).
  • A woman jailed for "anti-social behavior", i.e., a lesbian, a prostitute or woman who used birth control.
• Green inverted triangle — criminals.
• Pink inverted triangle — a homosexual or bisexual man.
• Purple inverted triangle — Jehovah's Witnesses
• Red inverted triangle — a political prisoner. The color red was probably chosen because it represented the communists, the political enemies that the Nazis hated most (and the first to be officially outlawed).

Double triangles:

• Two superimposed yellow triangles forming the Star of David — a Jew, including Jews by practice or descent.
• Pink inverted triangle superimposed upon a yellow one, making the Star of David — a homosexual Jew.
• Yellow inverted triangle superimposed over a black triangle, or "voided" black inverted triangle superimposed over a yellow triangle — an Aryan convicted of miscegenation and labeled as a "race defiler."

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

Table of camp inmate markings

---

See Note 1
Male 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: Uninverted red triangle

	Political Enemies	Habitual Criminals	Emigrants (Foreign Forced Laborers)	Jehovah's Witnesses	Gay males	Asocials	Roma and Sinti
Basic colors
Markings for Repeaters
Inmates of Penal Battalions
Markings for Jews
Special Markings

(Plant 1988 and ^*)

Notes

---

1. At first glance, this combination appears to be contradictory. However, the Nazi definition of "Jew", according to the Nuremberg Laws, included those of Jewish ancestry, and so it was possible for such people to actually hold other religions. Thus, "Jewish Jehovah's Witness", while perhaps unlikely, was by no means impossible.

Reference

---

• Plant, Richard, The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals, Owl Books, 1988, ISBN 0805006001.

External links

---

• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Classification system in Nazi concentration camps.
• Stars, triangles and markings - Jewish Virtual Library
• Gay Prisoners in Concentration Camps as Compared with Jehovah's Witnesses and Political Prisoners by Ruediger Lautmann

LGBT history of Germany | Nazi concentration camps

Tric'horn (kampoù bac'h) | Abzeichen in den Konzentrationslagern | Διακριτικά σήματα στα Ναζιστικά στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης | Sistema de marcado en los campos de concentración nazis | Système de marquage nazi des prisonniers | Merktekens in Duitse concentratiekampen | ナチ強制収容所のバッジ | Oznakowanie więźniów nazistowskich obozów | Os triângulos do Holocausto | Vankitunnukset natsien keskitysleireillä