Badges, primarily triangles, were used inNazi concentration camps inGerman-occupied countries toidentify 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 asbadges 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 forkapo 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 apink triangle emblem to symbolise gay rights is a response to the camp identification patches.^[2] Theblack, blue,purple, andred triangles have also been reclaimed by various remembrance and anti-fascist groups, particularlyin Europe.^[2][3]Such groups include theAssociation of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime – Federation of Antifascists (VVN-BdA) in Germany and other members of theInternational Federation ofResistance Fighters – Association ofAnti-Fascists (FIR).^[4]

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The system varied between camps and over time.^[5]Dachau concentration camp had one of the more elaborate systems.^[6][7]

Triangle	Prisoner categories
▲ Red upright	A red triangle pointing upwards was used for enemyPOWs (Sonderhäftlinge,[citation needed] meaning special detainees), spies or traitors (Aktionshäftlinge, meaning activities detainees), or militarydeserters or criminals (Wehrmachtsangehörige, meaningArmed Forces members),[citation needed] andStrafbataillon.
▼Red inverted[7]	Thered inverted triangle was used forpolitical prisoners[6], including:[8][9] TheNazi Party's political opponents,[9]starting in Germany: Communists[8] Social democrats[8] Democrats[9] Socialists[8] Liberals[9] Trade unionists[8] Anarchists[9][8][verification needed] Anti-fascists[9] Freemasons[9][10] See also:Persecution of Freemasons § Nazi Germany and occupied Europe andGrand Anti-Masonic Exhibition. Occupied country resistance members (partisans) including:[citation needed] Jewish women inthe resistance who were operating under false identities.[11] Gentiles who assisted Jews[citation needed] such asOdette Pilpoul [fr] Somelesbians and members of other marginalised groups such asYvonne Ziegler andSuzanne Leclézio.
▼ Green[7]	Green indicated convicts and criminals (Berufsverbrecher - BV)[12] Often working askapos.[citation needed]
▼ Blue	Blue showed foreign forced laborers andemigrants.[6][8][13] This category includedstateless people ("apatrides",Spanish:apátridas),[14] Emigrants, people who had fled Nazi Germany and been arrested when they returned, including Jews and political opponents of the Nazi Party.[15] Spanish prisoners atMauthausen, who were marked with trees at other camps.[15] Spanish refugees fromFrancoist Spain whosecitizenship was revoked and emigrants to countries which were occupied by Nazi Germany or were under the German sphere of influence.[16]
▼Brown	Brown was assigned to maleRoma later on in theRomani 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.[7]
▼Black	The black triangle indicated people who were deemed asocial elements (asozial)[6][17][18] Including the following: Mentally ill anddevelopmentally disabled.[18] Their triangles were additionally inscribed with the wordBlöd, meaning "stupid".[19][20]Schizophrenic andepileptic[21] people were forcibly sterilized, shot, or gassed in psychiatric institutions as opposed to at the Nazi camps.[22] Otherdisabled people, such as people withdiabetes (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").[23] Alcoholics[18] drug addicts[18] Work-shy (arbeitsscheu) Vagrants[18] andbeggars.[18][17] Pacifists[18] andconscription resisters.[citation needed] Prostitutes[18] Sex workers.[17][24][25] Lesbian women[18][26][27][28] Roma andSinti.[18] They wore the black triangle with a Z notation (forZigeuner, meaning "Gypsy") to the right of the triangle's point, or in white on top of the triangle.[17][29] Male Roma were later assigned a brown triangle.[30]
▼Purple	Purple was mostly used forJehovah's Witnesses (over 99%) as well as members of other small pacifist religious groups.[6][notes 1]
▼Pink	Pink primarily indicatedhomosexual men and those who were identified as such at the time (e.g.,bisexual men,male prostitutes, and those deemed "transvestites"[6][c])[31][32][33] and sexual offenders, as well aspedophiles andzoophiles.[34] Many in this group were subject to forced sterilization.[21]

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.^[35]Women (including lesbians) who did not conform to Nazi gender norms (such as nationalistpronatalism) were usually labelled with theblack triangle of asocials.Some lesbians were prominent in the original resistance,and thus they were labelled with the red triangle, such asYvonne Ziegler andSuzanne Leclézio.

TheWehrmachtStrafbataillon (punishment battalion) and SSBewährungstruppe (probation company) were military punishment units. They consisted ofWehrmacht 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 asforlorn hopes orcannon fodder. The infamousDirlewanger Brigade was an example of a regular unit created from such personnel.^{[citation needed]}

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]}

• 
  Single-triangles visible onSachsenhausen detainees
• 
  Single-triangle badges in various colours visible on detainees inSachsenhausen
• 
  MoreSachsenhausen detainees

Double-triangle badges usually used two superimposed triangles to form a six-pointed star, resembling the JewishStar of David.^[5] Yellow stars were first used by the Nazis inJewish ghettos inoccupiedPoland. Jews elsewhere inGerman-occupied Europe were then also forced to wear the symbol in public and inNazi-established ghettos.^[tone]

• 
  Yellow star fromDachau^{[verification needed]}
• 
  Yellow badge at theJüdisches Museum Westfalen [de]
• 
  Painting of Jews in 16th CenturyGermany wearing circularyellow badges.^[e]

• 
  Sachsenhausen detainee's red political enemy triangle atop a yellow Jew triangle(lower left)
• 
  Part of aDachau 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.

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 beincarcerated 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]}

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 anersatz 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]

Many markings and combinations existed. A prisoner would usually have at least two, and possibly more than six.^{[citation needed]}

AStrafkompanie (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]}

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 blackStrafkompanie roundel.

A prisoner-functionary (Funktionshäftling), orkapo (boss), wore a clothbrassard (theirKennzeichen, 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.

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:

• B (Belgier,Belgians)
• E (Engländer, "English"; in practice used for all British)
• F (Franzosen, French)
• I (Italiener, Italians)
• J (Jugoslawen,Yugoslavs)^{[40][verification needed]}
• N (Niederländer, Dutch) — H (forHollander) is also recorded^[41]
• No (Norweger, Norwegian)
• P (Polen,Poles)
• S (Spanier, generally used forSpanish Republican exiles)
• T (Tscheche,Czechs)
• U (Ungarn,Hungarians)
• 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. Aletter P (forPolen) was cut out of the purple cloth to show the yellow backing beneath.^{[citation needed]}

• 
  F on a red triangle (French political enemy) on theBuchenwald clothing of Dr. Joseph Brau^
• 
  A F-triangle on theBuchenwald clothing of Dr. Joseph Brau^
• 
  A marking meaning Polish political enemy
• 
  Auschwitz detaineeIgnacy Kwarta [pl] wears a red P-triangle.^[f]
• 
  Dutch Jews wearing a yellow star and the letter N forNiederländer atMauthausen.^[42]
• 
  Sachsenhausen-issued red F emblem for a French political enemy

Some camps assignedNacht und Nebel (night and fog) prisoners had them wear two large letters NN in yellow.^{[citation needed]}

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 aresistance 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]}

Polizeihäftlinge (police inmates), short forPolizeilich Sicherungsverwahrte Häftlinge (police secure custody inmates), wore either PH in large black letters on a white square or the letter S (forSicherungsverwahrt – 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 (forsowjetischer 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 joinedAndrey Vlasov'sLiberation Army to fight for Nazi Germany.^{[citation needed]}

Labour education detainees (Arbeitserziehung Häftling) wore a white letter A on their black triangle. This stood forArbeitsscheuer ("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]}

Some of the symbols were reclaimed as symbols of pride after the war.^[43] Theinverted red,pink,purple,black, and blue triangles have all been reclaimed by various remembrance and anti-fascist groups, particularly in Europe.^[2][3] For example, theAssociation of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime – Federation of Antifascists (VVN-BdA) and other members of theInternational Federation ofResistance Fighters – Association ofAnti-Fascists use the red triangle as part of their emblem.^[4] Thepink triangle has been used worldwide since the 1970s. Thered inverted triangle has been mostly used in Europe.^[44]

• 
  Women withsymbols of allpersecuted groups onInternational Women's Day (8 March) at theRavensbrück monument inAmsterdam in 1985.^[45]

Triangle-motifs appear on many postwar memorials to the victims of the Nazis. Most triangles are plain while some others bearnationality-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 thenon-Jewish victims like Poles and other Slavs, communists, homosexuals, Roma and Sinti (seePorajmos), people with disability (seeAction T4),Soviet POWs andJehovah'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]}

• 
  Sachsenhausen memorial
• 
  Various badges on aDachau memorial.^[g]
• 
  On theKlooga Jewish victims' memorial
• 
  Pink triangle plaque honouring gay victims,a subway station in Berlin.^[h]
• 
  Commemorative plaque atMauthausen camp recalling thepersecution of Jehovah's Witnesses.^[i]
• 
  Pink triangle (Rosa Winkel in German) memorial for gay men killed atBuchenwald

VVN-BdA

KdAW

One of the first wasCommittees for the Victims of Fascism [de] (German:OdF-Ausschüsse).

TheAssociation of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime – Federation of Antifascists (VVN‑BdA) was founded in West Germany soon after the end of World War Two.

TheCommittee of Antifascist Resistance Fighters (KdAW)^[j] was formedin 1953.^{[verification needed]} It functioned as theEast German counterpart of the VVN (German:Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes,lit. 'Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime'). The KdAW played an important role inthe commemoration ofGerman resistance to Nazism andThe Holocaust in East Germany.^[46] East Germany utilised such commemorative functionsto emphasise the anti-fascist orientation of the state.^[47] It also included survivors ofconcentration camps, former prisoners ofBrandenburg-Görden Prison, veterans of theInternational Brigades of theSpanish Civil War, and others.^[48]

ANED [it]^[k]

Antifaschistisches Infoblatt

Respectable LogeLiberté Chérie

• National Association of Former Nazi Camp Deportees [it] (ANED)Italian:Associazione nazionale ex deportati nei campi nazisti

• 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 blackswastika.^[49][50]

• Antifaschistisches Infoblatt (AIB) is ananti-fascist publication inBerlin,Germany.^[51][52]

• Liberté chérie (French for "Cherished Liberty") was aMasonic Lodge founded in 1943 by imprisoned freemasons, from the Belgian resistance,^[53] atEsterwegen concentration camp. It was one of the few lodges ofFreemasons founded within aNazi concentration camp during theSecond World War.^[54][55] (see also:Persecution of Freemasons § Nazi Germany and occupied Europe andGrand Anti-Masonic Exhibition)

• NIKA (German:Nationalismus ist keine Alternative,lit. 'Nationalism is not an alternative') was started in Germany in response to the rise ofGermany's far-right party, the AfD (German:Alternative für Deutschland,lit. 'Alternative for Germany').^[56]

• Qassam Brigades (Arabic:كتئب القسام,romanized: Kataeb al-Qassam) have used aninverted 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 andnationalist. Most media have saidQassam'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]

• Territoires de la Mémoire [fr;nl] (Territories of Memory) andTriangle Rouge [nl;fr] (Red Triangle) are Belgian organisations who promote the use of the red triangle as a symbol of anti-fascism and anti-racism.^[63][l] (See also:Avenue Louise § World War II)

• 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 asAnti-Fascist Action, also resemble the red wedge from the 1919Russian revolutionary propaganda posterBeat the Whites with the Red Wedge byEl 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 thatQassam's symbol originates from the Palestinian flag.Theimplied anti-Nazi and explicitlypro-resistance meaning of Qassam's using the symbol used to honour WWII resistance is controversial.Palestinian resistance is oftenlabelled as terrorism by allies of the United States.^[m] Qassam, and theircivilian political wing (Hamas), have referred to the military forces occupying Palestine as Nazis since theirfounding documents; this was omitted in therevised version, which was much shorter.^[72]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toCategory:Auschwitz Cross.

BelgianPolitical Prisoner's Cross

"P" on Poland'sAuschwitz Cross

Service medals awarded toprisoners 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.TheAuschwitz Cross, aPolish medal for camp victims and thePolitical Prisoner's Cross 1940–1945, aBelgian medal both show a red triangle with a nationality indicator, and the ribbons replicate the striped fabric of some camp uniforms.^[73]

ThePolitical Prisoner's Cross 1940–1945 (French:Croix du Prisonnier Politique 1940–1945,Dutch:Politieke Gevangenkruis 1940–1945) was aBelgian war medal established byroyal decree of theRegent on 13 November 1947 and awarded to Belgian citizens arrested and interned by the Germans as political prisoners during theSecond 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, theDeutsche 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 namedGerman: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 theMedal for Fighters Against Fascism.^[75]

TheAuschwitz Cross (Polish:Krzyż Oświęcimski), instituted on 14 March 1985, was aPolish decoration awarded to honour survivors ofNazi German concentration camps, includingAuschwitz.^[76] Auschwitz is a German name for the Polish townOświęcim, where a complex of concentration camps was built by Nazi Germany during theGerman 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 ofGreta Ferušić, who was awarded it in February 2004.^[77]Some of the people awarded the medal were Jewish, includingSzymon Kluger (Shimson Kleuger).^[78]

Stories of queer holocaust victims were largely ignored until the 1990s.^[79]There have been numerous variants, including theSilence=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, andlesbians.^[80] Gender non-conforming men were labelled with the pink triangle, while women (including lesbians) who did not conform to Nazi gender norms and nationalistpronatalism 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 asYvonne Ziegler andSuzanne Leclézio.

• 
  Silence Equals Death
• 
  Thebiangles symbol of bisexuality^[n]
• 
  "Safe space" symbol:pink triangle in a green circle
• 
  Equality Michigan

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.^[28]

• 
  Amsterdam'sHomomonument.^[o]
• 
  Monument to the Gays and Lesbians Persecuted in the Holocaust [he] in Tel Aviv.^[p]
• 
  TheSydney Gay and Lesbian Holocaust Memorial.^[q]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toPeople wearing a red triangle pin.

In 2020,Spanish politiciansPablo Iglesias (Second Deputy Prime Minister of Spain) andAlberto Garzón (Ministry of Consumer Affairs) wore red triangle lapel pins while being sworn into government by theKing of Spain.^[9]Alberto Garzón has been wearing the symbol since 2016.^[81]

Red inverted trianglelapel pins are widely distributed Western European countries. Red triangle pins are worn bysocialist,communist, andotherleft-wing orfar-left politicians in countries such asBelgium,Spain, andFrance.^[82][83][84]

Left-wing French presidential candidateJean-Luc Mélenchon wore a red triangle lapel pin during his campaign, the message was particularly aimed at diffentiating himself from far-rightNational Front candidateMarine Le Pen (daughter of the party'seven more controversial founder,Jean-Marie Le Pen).^[82]

Jean-Luc Mélenchon explained the meaning of the symbol, "I have been compared to theNational 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. Butthe first to be deported and massacred were the communists..."^[82]

French politicianUgo Bernalicis, from theLeft Party (previously from theSocialist Party), represents thedepartment of Nord, in theFrench National Assembly.^[85][86]Bernalicis was born into a family close to thecommunist movement, with a militant father, an elected grandfather and a great-grandfather who was deported to theDachau concentration camp because of his political convictions.^[87]

• 
  Jean-Luc Mélenchon (photo 2022)
• 
  Ugo Bernalicis,Left Party,Nord,French National Assembly (photo 2019)
• 
  Alberto Garzón,^[r]Communist Party of Spain (photo 2020)
• 
  Pablo Iglesias Turrión,Podemos, Spain (photo 2020)
• 
  Christophe Lacroix,^[s]Belgium (photo 2019)
• 
  Stéphane Crusnière [fr;nl],Socialist Party,Belgium (photo 2016)
• 
  Jos D'Haese,Workers' Party of Belgium,^[t] at the2021Back to the Climate march inBrussels

Variantanti-fascist symbol, based on the red and yellow badge of Jewish political prisoners, on a banner inNew York in March 2019.^[u]

Left: Modernanti-fascist symbol usedin the USA.Right: "Come to us", 1932 poster fromAntifaschistische Aktion, opponents of the originalNazi Party inWeimar Germany.

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.^[v]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 atprotests in the United States during theGaza war. This was frequently misinterpreted or misrepresented as a symbol of Naziantisemitism.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]

• 
  Pink triangle symbol at aqueer pride parade on a banner about theStonewall riots (1994)
• 
  ACT UP sign with an upward-pointing pink triangle (2017)
• 
  Yellow star and "Never Again MeansNever Again" at a protest about immigration detention (2019)

• 
  Protest againstAlternative for Germany (AfD) in 2021.^[w]
• 
  Photo shows a protest inFrankfurt in 2025.^[x]

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.^{[98][99][100][101]}

In April 2017 Trump "vowed" to "combat antisemitism".^[102]

• 
  Protest against Trump in February 2017 in front of theStonewall Inn
• 
  Pink triangle on a protest banner calling Trump afascist, inSan Francisco in 2017

In June 2020, there-election campaign ofDonald 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 PresidentMike Pence. Many observers compared the graphic to the symbol used by the Nazis for identifying political prisoners such ascommunists,social democrats andsocialists. Many noted the number of ads –88 – which is associated withneo-Nazis and white supremacists.^{[103][104][105]}

As an example of the public outcry against the use of the downward-pointing red triangle, as reported byMotherJones, the Twitter account (@jewishaction),^[106] the account of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action,^[107] 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"^[108]

Facebook removed the campaign ads with the graphic, saying that its use in this context violated their policy against "organised hate".^{[109][110][111][112][113][114]} 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 ofAntifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, disputed this, saying that the symbol is not associated with Antifa in the United States.^[115]

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 thereappropriation of theNazi red triangle occasionally appeared in artworks and protests about Palestine before 2023 (see above).^[v]

A political cartoon by Brazilian artistCarlos Latuff depicted a Palestinian man behind theWest Bank barrier in the striped uniform of aNazi concentration camp, with a redcrescent in place of thered inverted triangle worn by political prisoners, or redand yellow star worn by Jewish political prisoners. In 2006 aLatuff's cartoon won second prize in the 2006International Holocaust Cartoon Competition in Iran.^[116] The competition in Iran was started as retaliation for Western cartoonists'depictions of theProphet Muhammed and associated claims of "free speech", by choosing the topic Western audiences would find most offensive.^[117][118]

In late December 2023,Gilad Erdan,Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, provoked controversy by wearing a yellow star at the assembly.^[119] Erdan claimed that theOctober 7 Attacks was equivalent to Germany's genocide of Jews duringThe Holocaust inNazi Germany andGerman-occupied Europe.^[120]The analogy was controversial.^{[121][better source needed]} TheVad Yashem Holocaust Memorial chairpersonDani 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".^[122]

In the first two weeks of the Gaza war European leftists, such asUnited 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 thePalestinian flag on promotions for a protest that was held on 21 October 2023.^[123]

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.^{[124][better source needed]}

Some sources^[which?] have suggested thatthe inverted red triangle symbol used by Hamas in its propaganda videos is reminiscent of the same red triangle used by the Nazis, with regards toantisemitism during the Gaza war. However, the Nazis used the inverted red triangle to identify prisoners with political views opposed to Nazism, not necessarily Jewish prisoners.^[125][126] The red inverted triangle was first used in the 1930s to mark German communists andSocial Democrats, then during WWII the inverted red triangle was used to markpeople who resisted theNazi occupation oftheir countries by Nazi Germany.^[127] However,news media suggested thesymbol used inPalestinian propaganda independently originated from thered section on the Palestinian flag.^[128]

• Some examples of camp triangle emblems on monuments and related uses
• 
  ADoraTodesmarsch(death march) roadside tablet marked only with the date and a red triangle
• 
  On aBuchenwaldTodesmarsch(death march) route historical marker
• 
  On aSachsenhausen death march routehistorical marker
• 
  Monument (in the village ofGrabow-Below) forRavensbrück death march victims
• 
  On aWöbbelin memorial stone
• 
  Boulder (in Lindenring) for 2,000 women victims ofRavensbrück
• 
  On aCap Arcona incident memorial
• 
  At theNeustadt-Glewe concentration camp memorial
• 
  F-triangle atMauthausen-Gusen honors French victims
• 
  On a monument toNeuengamme victims inHamburg^[y]
• 
  Memorial to victims killed at Genshagen^[y]
• 
  P-triangle at aZgorzelec memorial
• 
  Memorial to French victims ofDachau inParis.^[z]
• 
  Triangle on the memorial toforced labordeaths at the truck factory inZittau
• 
  Every year, a pink triangle is erected onTwin Peaks in San Francisco duringPride weekend.

Prisoner category	Politisch (political prisoner)	Berufsverbrecher (professional criminal)	Emigrant (foreignforced laborer)	Bibelforscher Bible Student (Jehovah's Witnesses)	Homosexuell (homosexual male or sex offender)	"Arbeitsscheu" (work‑shy) or"Asozial" (asocial)	Zigeuner ("Gypsy")Roma orSinti male[citation needed]
Colours	Red	Green	Blue	Purple	Pink	Black	Brown
Triangles
Markings for repeaters
Inmates ofStrafkompanie (punishment companies)
Markings for Jews
Nationality markings	Political prisoner nationality markings used 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)		EnemyPOW ordeserter[citation needed]
Example		Marks were worn in descending order as follows: inmate number, repeater bar, triangle or star, member ofpenal battalion, escape suspect. In this example, the inmate is a Jewish-Romani convict with multiple convictions, serving in aStrafkompanie (penal unit) and who is suspected of trying to escape.

• Committees for the Victims of Fascism [de] (German:OdF-Ausschüsse)
• Dehumanisation – Behavior or process that undermines individuality of and in othersPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Identification of inmates in Nazi concentration camps
• LGBTQ symbols § Triangle badges of Nazi Germany
• German-occupied Europe – Aspect of World War II
• Resistance during World War II – Irregular forces in World War II
• Victims of Nazi Germany

• Black triangle (badge) – Nazi concentration camp badge for "asocials"
• Brown triangle – Genocide against Romani in Europe during World War IIPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• P (Nazi symbol) – Sign for Polish workers during the NS-Regime in Nazi Germany
• Pink triangle – Symbol for the LGBTQIA+ community
• Purple triangle – Badge used in Nazi concentration camps to identify Jehovah's Witnesses
• Red triangle (badge) – Symbol of anti-fascism

• Plant, Richard (1988).The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals.Owl Books.ISBN 0-8050-0600-1.
• Gregson, Julie (4 August 2024)."Red triangle symbol: Germany debating a ban".Deutsche Welle. Interviews and quotes:Jens-Christian Wagner (director of theBuchenwald andMittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation); Ralf Michaels (director of theMax Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg); and theNational Federation of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime, Resistance Fighters and Antifascists (VVN-BDA).
• "Camp badge chart".historyplace.
• "Additional camp badge chart".friends-partners.org.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toNazi concentration camp badges.

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

• Terminology of Nazi concentration camps
• Identity documents of Nazi Germany
• The Holocaust

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