Nazi concentration camp badge

{{short description|Cloth emblems; part of the system of identification in Nazi camps}} {{use dmy dates|date=January 2015}} {{use British English|date=December 2025}} thumb|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-dach-early.htm|title=The History Place – Holocaust Timeline: Nazis Open Dachau Concentration Camp|website=historyplace.com|access-date=27 March 2018}}</ref> The triangles were made of fabric and were sewn onto the prisoners' jackets and trousers. These were mandatory and intended as badges of shame. They had specific meanings indicated by their colour and shape. Guards used such emblems to assign tasks to the detainees. For example, a guard, at a glance, could see if someone was a convicted criminal (green patch) and might assume they had a tough temperament suitable for ''kapo'' duty.

Someone wearing a badge indicating a suspected escape attempt was usually not assigned to work squads operating outside the camp fence. Someone wearing an "F" could be called upon to help translate a guard's spoken instructions to a trainload of new arrivals from France. Some historical monuments quote the badge-imagery, with the use of a triangle being a visual shorthand to symbolise all camp victims.

The modern-day use of a pink triangle emblem to symbolise gay rights is a response to the camp identification patches.<ref name="Gregson 2024 Pink & Red" /> The black, blue, purple, and red triangles have also been reclaimed by various remembrance and anti-fascist groups, particularly in Europe.<ref name="Gregson 2024 Pink & Red" /><ref name="Searchlight" /> Such groups include the Association of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime – Federation of Antifascists (VVN-BdA) in Germany and other members of the International Federation of Resistance Fighters – Association of Anti-Fascists (FIR).<ref name="FIR VVN antifa" />

thumb|360px|center| Prisoners' distinguishing badges

== Badge coding system == {{See also|#Summary table of camp inmate markings}} {{further | Victims of Nazi Germany | anti-communism #Nazism {{!}} {{red|▼}} Communists | Communist Party of Germany #Nazi era {{!}} {{red|▼}} Communist Party | Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany {{!}} {{pink|▼}} Gay men | Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany {{!}} {{purple|▼}} Jehovah's Witnesses | Romani Holocaust {{!}} {{brown|▼}} Romani Holocaust }} {{multiple issues|{{more sources|date=November 2024}} {{More citations needed|section|date=October 2019}} 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|date=November 2024}} or {{Verification needed|date=November 2024}} to mark any that remain unsourced. | section = yes |collapsed=yes}}

=== Variability ===

The system varied between camps and over time.<ref name="1939 star" /> Dachau concentration camp had one of the more elaborate systems.<ref name="tour">{{cite web |url=https://www.dachautour.com/news/2018/10/1/identification-badges-at-dachau |title=Identification badges at Dachau |date=October 1, 2018 |website=The Dachau Tour |access-date=February 12, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517013527/https://www.dachautour.com/news/2018/10/1/identification-badges-at-dachau |archive-date=May 17, 2019}}</ref><ref name="arolsen" />

=== Single triangles === {{Redirect2|Green triangle|Blue triangle|the types of butterfly|Pale green triangle|the bus company in East London|Blue Triangle}}{{main|red triangle (badge) {{!}} {{red|▼}} inverted red|brown triangle {{!}} {{brown|▼}} brown|purple triangle {{!}} {{purple|▼}} purple|black triangle (badge) {{!}} {{black|▼}} black|pink triangle {{!}} {{pink|▼}} pink|LGBTQ symbols #Triangle badges of Nazi Germany {{!}} LGBTQ triangles}}

{{vertical align rows}} {| class="wikitable vertical-align-top" ! Triangle !! Prisoner categories |- ! {{Red|▲}} Red upright | A red triangle pointing upwards was used for enemy POWs ({{lang|de|Sonderhäftlinge}},<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.holocaust.cz/en/history/concentration-camps-and-ghettos/flossenbuerg-2/ |title=Flossenbürg |date=July 24, 2011 |website=Holocaust |access-date=February 25, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151004032816/https://www.holocaust.cz/en/history/concentration-camps-and-ghettos/flossenbuerg-2/ |archive-date=October 4, 2015}}</ref> meaning special detainees<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.stiftung-bg.de/en/news/memorial-plaque-ravensbrueck-20-july-1944/ |title=New memorial plaque for individuals imprisoned in Ravensbruck after the 20 July 1944 |date=July 20, 2025 |website=Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten |access-date=February 25, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250720113502/https://www.stiftung-bg.de/en/news/memorial-plaque-ravensbrueck-20-july-1944/ |archive-date=July 20, 2025}}</ref>), spies or traitors ({{lang|de|Aktionshäftlinge}}, meaning activities detainees<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/sa-gedenken-an-die-reichs-pogromnacht-von-1938-in-oberbayern,UTX6fZ5 |title=Gedenken an die Reichs-Pogromnacht von 1938 in Oberbayern |date=November 9, 2024 |website=BR24 |language=German |access-date=February 25, 2026}}</ref>), or military deserters or criminals ({{lang|de|Wehrmachtsangehörige}}, meaning Armed Forces members),<ref>{{cite web |url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10159399/1/Cushion_extracted_Cushion_anti-nazi-germans-ebook.pdf |title=Anti-Nazi Germans |last1=Moos |first1=Merilyn |last2=Cushion |first2=Steve |date=2020 |publisher=Socialist History Society |page=182 |access-date=February 26, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111132816/https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10159399/1/Cushion_extracted_Cushion_anti-nazi-germans-ebook.pdf |archive-date=January 11, 2023}}</ref> and Strafbataillon. |- ! {{Red|▼}} Red inverted <ref name="arolsen" /> | [[File:Prisoners' Uniforms with Red Triangles of Political Prisoners - Museum Exhibit - Dachau Concentration Camp Site - Dachau - Bavaria - Germany.jpg |thumb|right|250px| Red emblems of a political enemy on a Dachau detainee's clothing.]]

[[File:Benedikt Kautsky.jpg |thumb|200px| Austrian economist {{ill|Benedikt Kautsky|de}}, a Political prisoner, liberated from Buchenwald.{{efn| United States Army photo of Austrian economist and financial specialist {{ill|Benedikt Kautsky|de}}, a political prisoner, who was liberated from Buchenwald.}}]]

The red inverted triangle was used for political prisoners<ref name="tour" /><ref name="shaked">{{cite web |url=https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-inverted-red-triangle-a-symbol-of-hate |title=The inverted red triangle: a symbol of hate |last=Shaked |first=Or |website=Jewish Virtual Library |access-date=February 25, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241012074036/https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-inverted-red-triangle-a-symbol-of-hate |archive-date=October 12, 2024}}</ref>, including:<ref name="Pittsburgh Red">{{cite web |title=Identification Badges in the Holocaust |url=https://hcofpgh.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Pages-from-Badges-and-Stages-of-Genocide-version1.pdf |website=hcofpgh.org | publisher = Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210519015704/https://hcofpgh.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Pages-from-Badges-and-Stages-of-Genocide-version1.pdf | archive-date = 2021-05-19 | quote = Red Triangle: Political prisoners: social democrats, socialists, trade unionists, communists, and anarchists}}</ref><ref name="niusdiario.es 13 Jan 2020" >{{cite news | title = Qué significa el triángulo rojo invertido con el que han prometido su cargo Iglesias y Garzón | trans-title = What does the inverted red triangle with which Iglesias and Garzón swore their oath of office mean? | url = https://www.niusdiario.es/nacional/politica/que-significa-triangulo-rojo-garzon-iglesias-prometen-cargo_18_2882520134.html | work = Nius Diario www.niusdiario.es | publisher = Telecinco | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200114201329/https://www.niusdiario.es/nacional/politica/que-significa-triangulo-rojo-garzon-iglesias-prometen-cargo_18_2882520134.html | archive-date = 2020-01-14 | location = Madrid | date = 13 January 2020 | language = es | quote = 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. | trans-quote = 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.}}</ref>

* The Nazi Party's political opponents,<ref name="niusdiario.es 13 Jan 2020" /> starting in Germany: ** Communists<ref name="Pittsburgh Red" /><ref name="washington" /> ** Social democrats<ref name="Pittsburgh Red" /><ref name="washington" /> ** Democrats<ref name="niusdiario.es 13 Jan 2020" /> ** Socialists<ref name="Pittsburgh Red" /><ref name="shaked" /> ** Liberals<ref name="niusdiario.es 13 Jan 2020" /> ** Trade unionists<ref name="Pittsburgh Red" /> ** Anarchists<ref name="niusdiario.es 13 Jan 2020" /><ref name="Pittsburgh Red" /> {{verify source| reason = these are the examples usually listed, and are probably supported by sources elsewhere in the page or on linked pages |date=November 2024}} ** Anti-fascists<ref name="niusdiario.es 13 Jan 2020" /><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fastcompany.com/90518919/yes-the-trump-campaign-used-a-nazi-symbol-in-its-ads-heres-what-it-means |title=Yes, the Trump campaign used a Nazi symbol in its ads. Here's what it means |last=Smith |first=Lilly |date=June 18, 2020 |website=Fast Company |access-date=February 26, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200621075608/https://www.fastcompany.com/90518919/yes-the-trump-campaign-used-a-nazi-symbol-in-its-ads-heres-what-it-means |archive-date=June 21, 2020}}</ref>

* Freemasons<ref name="niusdiario.es 13 Jan 2020" /><ref>{{cite web | title = Freemasonry and the Holocaust | url = https://www.pglglasgow.org.uk/freemasonry-and-the-holocaust | website = www.pglglasgow.org.uk | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240222144452/https://www.pglglasgow.org.uk/freemasonry-and-the-holocaust | archive-date = 2024-02-22 | quote = 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.}}</ref><ref name="washington" /> ** See also: {{slink| Persecution of Freemasons |Nazi Germany and occupied Europe}} and Grand Anti-Masonic Exhibition.

* Occupied country resistance members (partisans) including: {{Citation needed|date=January 2026}} ** Jewish women in the resistance who were operating under false identities.<ref>{{cite news | last1 = Yaari | first1 = Yoel | title = Testimonies From Auschwitz Reveal a Network of Women Who Saved Lives and Prepared for Rebellion | url = https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2025-03-15/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/auschwitz-testimonies-reveal-network-of-women-who-saved-lives-and-prepared-for-rebellion/00000195-96aa-d4de-a3fd-96ab9a520000?fromLogin=success | work = Haaretz | date = 15 March 2025 | quote = 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…}}{{dead link|date=May 2026|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> ** Gentiles who assisted Jews<ref>{{cite web |url=https://forums.sailinganarchy.com/threads/stephen-miller-has-a-wet-dream.215692/ |title=Stephen Miller has a wet dream |date=June 18, 2020 |website=Sailing Anarchy |access-date=February 26, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260227001802/https://forums.sailinganarchy.com/threads/stephen-miller-has-a-wet-dream.215692/ |archive-date=February 27, 2026}}</ref> such as {{ill|Odette Pilpoul|fr}} ** Some lesbians and members of other marginalised groups such as Yvonne Ziegler and Suzanne Leclézio.

[[File:Numer obozowy KL Stutthof 29659.JPG |thumb|left|350px| {{center| Badge for a Polish (non-Jewish) political prisoner (ID 29659), {{ill|Lidia Główczewska|pl}}, in Stutthof.}}]] |- ! {{colour|#00B000|▼}} Green<ref name="arolsen" /> | Green indicated convicts and criminals (Berufsverbrecher - BV)<ref name="auschwitz.org Green" >{{cite news | title = System of triangles / Prisoner classification / History / Auschwitz-Birkenau | url = https://www.auschwitz.org/en/history/prisoner-classification/system-of-triangles | work = www.auschwitz.org |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20251223071656/https://www.auschwitz.org/en/history/prisoner-classification/system-of-triangles | archive-date = 2025-12-23 | quote = 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.}}</ref> * Often working as ''kapos''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au/news/kapos/ |title=Kapos: collaborators, perpetrators or victims? |last=Kwiet |first=Konrad |date=May 20, 2021 |website=Sydney Jewish Museum |access-date=February 26, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210607092926/https://sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au/news/kapos/ |archive-date=June 7, 2021}}</ref>{{citation needed| reason = many sources list green for criminal and elsewhere that criminals worked as kapos, but needs a citation for direct connection of Kapos + green |date=November 2024}} |- ! {{colour|#007FFF|▼}} Blue | Blue showed foreign forced laborers and emigrants.<ref name="tour" /><ref name="Pittsburgh Red" /><ref name="blue emigrants hcofpgh" >{{cite web | title = Identification Badges in the Holocaust | url = https://hcofpgh.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Pages-from-Badges-and-Stages-of-Genocide-version1.pdf | website = hcofpgh.org | publisher = Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210519015704/https://hcofpgh.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Pages-from-Badges-and-Stages-of-Genocide-version1.pdf | archive-date = 2021-05-19 | quote = Blue Triangle: Foreign forced laborers and emigrants}}</ref> This category included stateless people ("''apatrides''", {{langx|es|apátridas}}),<ref name="Stateless Spaniards" />

* Emigrants, people who had fled Nazi Germany and been arrested when they returned, including Jews and political opponents of the Nazi Party.<ref name="vscw Spanish blue" /> * Spanish prisoners at Mauthausen, who were marked with trees at other camps.<ref name="vscw Spanish blue" >{{cite news | title = The Transfer of Spanish Prisoners, 9 August, 1940 | url = https://www.vscw.ca/en/node/690 | website = www.vscw.ca | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20250515193818/https://www.vscw.ca/en/node/690 | archive-date = 2025-05-15 | quote = 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.}}</ref>

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.<ref>Gabriele Hammermann, Stefanie Pilzweger-Steiner (2018) KZ-Gedenk·stätte Dachau: Ein Rund·gang in Leichter Sprache. p. 72</ref>

|- ! {{Brown|▼}} Brown | Brown was assigned to male Roma later on in the Romani Holocaust. Originally, all Roma wore a black triangle with a Z (''Zigeuner''); female Roma continued to wear the black triangle, as they were viewed as petty criminals.<ref name="arolsen">{{Cite web |date=23 November 2023 |title=Prisoner groups in the concentration camp: How the Nazis stigmatized their victims |url=https://arolsen-archives.org/en/news/prisoner-groups-in-the-concentration-camp-how-the-nazis-stigmatized-their-victims/ |access-date=23 February 2025 |website=Arolsen Archives |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240225052122/https://arolsen-archives.org/en/news/prisoner-groups-in-the-concentration-camp-how-the-nazis-stigmatized-their-victims/ |archive-date=February 25, 2024}}</ref> |- ! {{Black|▼}} Black | The black triangle indicated people who were deemed asocial elements ({{lang|de|asozial}})<ref name="tour" /><ref name="auschwitz.org Black" >{{cite web | title = System of triangles / Prisoner classification / History / Auschwitz-Birkenau | url = https://www.auschwitz.org/en/history/prisoner-classification/system-of-triangles | website = www.auschwitz.org | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20251223071656/https://www.auschwitz.org/en/history/prisoner-classification/system-of-triangles |archive-date=2025-12-23 | quote = 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.}}</ref><ref name="black hcofpgh" >{{cite web | title = Identification Badges in the Holocaust | url = https://hcofpgh.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Pages-from-Badges-and-Stages-of-Genocide-version1.pdf | website = hcofpgh.org | publisher = Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210519015704/https://hcofpgh.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Pages-from-Badges-and-Stages-of-Genocide-version1.pdf | archive-date = 2021-05-19 | quote = Black Triangle: "Asocials," which included: Roma and Sinti, mentally ill and mentally disabled, alcoholics and drug addicts, vagrants and beggars, pacifists, prostitutes, lesbian women. }}</ref>

[[File: Bundesarchiv Bild 152-27-11A, Dachau, Konzentrationslager.jpg |thumb|right|160px| Black triangles on the trousers of Romani detainees at Dachau.]]

Including the following:

* Mentally ill and developmentally disabled.<ref name="black hcofpgh" /> Their triangles were additionally inscribed with the word {{lang|de|Blöd}}, meaning "stupid".<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.holocaustrevealed.org/badges.htm | title = Badges | website = Holocaust Revealed | access-date=27 March 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Edelheit|first1=Abraham J.|last2=Edelheit|first2=Hershel|date=2018-10-08|title=History of the Holocaust |location=New York |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9780429493737|isbn=978-0-429-49373-7|s2cid=160553505}}</ref> Schizophrenic and epileptic<ref name="jewishvirtuallibrary.org"/> people were forcibly sterilized, shot, or gassed in psychiatric institutions as opposed to at the Nazi camps.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Torrey|first1=E. Fuller|last2=Yolken|first2=Robert H.|date=2010-01-01|title=Psychiatric Genocide: Nazi Attempts to Eradicate Schizophrenia|journal=Schizophrenia Bulletin|volume=36|issue=1| pages=26-32 | doi=10.1093/schbul/sbp097|pmid=19759092|pmc=2800142|issn=0586-7614}}</ref>

* 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").<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Tuchman|first=Arleen Marcia|date=January 2011|title=Diabetes and Race: A Historical Perspective|journal=American Journal of Public Health|volume=101|issue=1|pages=24–33|doi=10.2105/AJPH.2010.202564|issn=0090-0036|pmc=3000712|pmid=21148711}}</ref>

* Alcoholics<ref name="black hcofpgh" /><ref name="asocials" /> * drug addicts<ref name="black hcofpgh" /><ref name="asocials" />

* Work-shy ({{lang|de|arbeitsscheu}})

* Vagrants<ref name="black hcofpgh" /> and beggars.<ref name="black hcofpgh" /><ref name="auschwitz.org Black" />

* Pacifists<ref name="black hcofpgh" /><ref name="asocials">{{cite web |url=https://hmd.org.uk/learn-about-the-holocaust-and-genocides/nazi-persecution/asocials/ |title=Asocials |website=Holocaust Memorial Day Trust |access-date=February 26, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260211024207/https://hmd.org.uk/learn-about-the-holocaust-and-genocides/nazi-persecution/asocials/ |archive-date=February 11, 2026}}</ref> and conscription resisters.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://dirkdeklein.net/2024/11/04/the-black-triangle-the-forgotten-victims/ |title=The Black Triangle: the forgotten victims |website=History of Sorts |access-date=February 26, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250730154605/https://dirkdeklein.net/2024/11/04/the-black-triangle-the-forgotten-victims/ |archive-date=July 30, 2025}}</ref>

* Female prostitutes<ref name="black hcofpgh" /> * Female sex workers<ref name="auschwitz.org Black" /><ref>Claudia Schoppmann (1990). ''Nationalsozialistische Sexualpolitik und weibliche Homosexualität''. Dissertation, FU Berlin. Centaurus, Pfaffenweiler 1991 (revisited 2nd edition 1997). {{ISBN|3-89085-538-5}}.</ref><ref>{{cite web| access-date = 2 February 2008 | date = 1 February 2001 | url = http://www.oxfordstudent.com/ht2001wk3/Columns/black_triangle_women | title = Black triangle women | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090212113936/http://www.oxfordstudent.com/ht2001wk3/Columns/black_triangle_women | archive-date = 12 February 2009}}</ref> * Lesbian women<ref name="black hcofpgh" /><ref name="Elman">{{cite journal|last1=Elman PhD|first1=R. Amy|title=Triangles and Tribulations: The Politics of Nazi Symbols|journal=Journal of Homosexuality|date=1996|volume=30|issue=3|pages=1–11|doi=10.1300/J082v30n03_01|pmid=8743114|issn=0091-8369}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title = Nazi Persecution of Queer People |website=Pink Triangle Legacies Project | url = https://www.pinktrianglelegacies.org/learn/history | quote = 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.}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au/news/the-stories-behind-the-pink-triangle/|title=The stories behind the pink triangle|date=6 May 2022}}</ref>

* Roma and Sinti.<ref name="black hcofpgh" /><ref name="asocials" /> They wore the black triangle with a Z notation (for {{lang|de|Zigeuner}}, meaning "Gypsy") to the right of the triangle's point, or in white on top of the triangle.<ref name="auschwitz.org Black" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/discover/artifacts/romani-black-patch|title=E Kali Pečàta, Black Patch | Bullock Texas State History Museum|website=The Story of Texas}}</ref> Male Roma were later assigned a brown triangle.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/glossB.html|title=Glossary|website=Jewish Virtual Library|access-date=27 March 2018}}</ref>

|- ! {{Purple|▼}} Purple | [[File:Striped pajamas with purple triangle (crop).jpg |thumb|right|160px| A prisoner uniform with a purple triangle, the mark of Jehovah's Witnesses.]]

Purple was mostly used for Jehovah's Witnesses (over 99%) as well as members of other small pacifist religious groups.<ref name="tour" /><ref group=notes>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.'"</ref>

[[File:Purple Triangle.JPG |thumb|left|250px| Specimen showing a purple triangle, indicating a Jehovah's Witness.]] |- ! {{Pink|▼}} Pink | Pink primarily indicated homosexual men and those who were identified as such at the time (e.g., bisexual men, male prostitutes, and those deemed "transvestites"<ref name="tour" /><ref>{{cite web | url = http://tgdor.org/holocaust.shtml|title=2008 Houston Transgender Day of Remembrance: Transgenders and Nazi Germany | author = Cristian Williams|website=tgdor.org|access-date=27 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180916185919/http://tgdor.org/holocaust.shtml | archive-date = 16 September 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url = https://arcspace.com/feature/canadian-national-holocaust-monument/ | title = Canadian National Holocaust Monument / Studio Libeskind | website = arcspace.com | access-date = 30 August 2018 | archive-date = 27 December 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191227233549/https://arcspace.com/feature/canadian-national-holocaust-monument/ }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.outsmartmagazine.com/2012/11/illuminating-the-darkness/|title=Illuminating the Darkness|website=outsmartmagazine.com|date=November 2012|access-date=30 August 2018}}</ref> and sexual offenders, as well as pedophiles and zoophiles.<ref>Richard Plant (1988). ''The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals''. Owl Books. {{ISBN|0-8050-0600-1}}.</ref> Many in this group were subject to forced sterilization.<ref name="jewishvirtuallibrary.org">{{Cite web|title=Nazi Persecution of the Mentally & Physically Disabled|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/nazi-persecution-of-the-mentally-and-physically-disabled|access-date=2021-12-29|website=Jewish Virtual Library}}</ref> |- |} {{reflist|group=note}}

==== Asoziale (anti-socials) {{ anchor |Asoziale}}==== {{main|Asociality (Nazi Germany)|Roma Holocaust|Aktion T4}}

{{lang|de|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.

==== Lesbian prisons ==== [[File:Yvonne Ziegler Ravensbrück Arolsen Archives DocID7770630.jpg |thumb|300px| Ravensbruck prisoner paperwork for Yvonne Ziegler, partner of Suzanne Leclézio.]] {{main|Lesbians in Nazi Germany}}

Lesbians did not have their own specific category.<ref name="Pink lesbian">{{cite web |title=Nazi Persecution of Queer People | publisher = Pink Triangle Legacies Project | url = https://www.pinktrianglelegacies.org/learn/history | website = Pink Triangle LP | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240417205014/https://www.pinktrianglelegacies.org/learn/history | archive-date = 2024-04-17 | quote = 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.}}</ref> Women (including lesbians) who did not conform to Nazi gender norms (such as nationalist pronatalism) were usually labelled with the black triangle of asocials. Some lesbians were prominent in the original resistance, and thus they were labelled with the red triangle, such as Yvonne Ziegler and Suzanne Leclézio.

==== Wehrmacht Strafbataillon ==== {{main|Strafbataillon}} {{see also|human wave attack|forlorn hope|Schutzstaffel}}

The {{lang|de|Wehrmacht|italic=no}} {{lang|de|Strafbataillon}} (punishment battalion) and SS {{lang|de|Bewährungstruppe}} (probation company) were military punishment units. They consisted of {{lang|de|Wehrmacht|italic=no}} 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nypl.org/research/research-catalog/bib/hb990129973520203941 |title=The SS Dirlewanger Brigade: the history of the Black Hunters |last=Ingrao |first=Christian |date=2011 |via=The New York Public Library |access-date=February 26, 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.beachesofnormandy.com/articles/The_Dirlewanger_Brigade/?id=1d61aa0dbc |title=The Dirlewanger Brigade |website=Beaches of Normandy |access-date=February 26, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220529052857/https://www.beachesofnormandy.com/articles/The_Dirlewanger_Brigade/?id=1d61aa0dbc |archive-date=May 29, 2022}}</ref>

==== Limited preventative custody ====

Limited preventative custody detainee ({{lang|de|Befristete Vorbeugungshaft Häftling}}, or BV) was the term for general criminals, who wore green triangles with no special marks.{{Clarify|reason=Did they have "BV" on their badge?|date=December 2025}} 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|date=December 2025}}

==== Examples of the single triangle badges at Nazi camps ====

File:Prisoners in the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen, Germany, December 19, 1938. Heinrich Hoffman Collection. - NARA - 540177.jpg|Single-triangles visible on Sachsenhausen detainees

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-78612-0007, KZ Sachsenhausen, Häftlinge bei Zählappel.jpg| Single-triangle badges in various colours visible on detainees in Sachsenhausen

File:Prisoners in the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen, Germany, 12-19-1938 - NARA - 540175.jpg|More Sachsenhausen detainees

</gallery>

=== Double triangles and multiple colours === {{further | Yellow badge #Axis powers | Jewish Bolshevism {{!}} Judeo-Bolshevism (conspiracy theory) }}

==== Origins of yellow star badges ====

[[File:Juif.JPG |thumb|200px| Wearing a yellow star was mandatory for Jews in occupied Europe, before the badge was used in concentration camps.{{efn| The text says in {{langx|fr|Juif||Jew}}.<ref> See English Wiktionary entry for ''Juif''.</ref> See also: Nazi occupation of France.}}]]

Double-triangle badges usually used two superimposed triangles to form a six-pointed star, resembling the Jewish Star of David.<ref name="1939 star" /> Yellow stars were first used by the Nazis in Jewish ghettos in occupied Poland. Jews elsewhere in German-occupied Europe were then also forced to wear the symbol in public and in Nazi-established ghettos.{{tone inline|date=December 2025}}

File:From the Dachau concentration camp (8606847046).jpg | Yellow star from Dachau {{verify source| reason = metadata says that but double check for a reliable source on commons page|date=December 2025}}

File:Judenstern JMW.jpg | Yellow badge at the {{ill|Jüdisches Museum Westfalen|de}}

File:Wormsjews.jpg | Painting of Jews in 16th Century Germany wearing circular yellow badges.{{efn|The man holds a moneybag and bulbs of garlic (often used in artistic portrayals of Jews in medieval Europe.{{verify source| reason = this is in the image data, but I can't find the source on that page.|date=December 2025}} }}

</gallery>

==== Colour combinations for double triangles ==== {| class="wikitable sortable" ! Inverted triangle ! style="width: 9em;" | Overlayed on ! Person !! Other prisoner categories |- | {{colour|#007FFF|▼}} Blue || {{Red|▼}} A red inverted triangle to form a red{{nbs}}border {{NoteTag| Both triangles were inverted, so unlike the others, it does not form a six-pointed star.<ref name="Blue + Red" />}} | colspan=2 | Represented a foreign forced labour and political prisoner, such as Spanish Republicans in Mauthausen.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://entomelloso.com/de-tomelloso-a-mauthausen/ |title=De Tomelloso a Mauthausen |author=Vicente Jesus Diaz Burillo |website=En Tomelloso |date=12 January 2017 |access-date=February 12, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170830185527/http://entomelloso.com/de-tomelloso-a-mauthausen/ |archive-date=August 30, 2017}}</ref><ref name="Blue + Red" >{{cite web |title=De Tomelloso a Mauthausen |trans-title=From Tomelloso to Mauthausen |url=https://web.archive.ohttps://entomelloso.com/feria-de-tomelloso/de-tomelloso-a-mauthausen/136147/ |website=En Tomelloso |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251205135207/https://entomelloso.com/feria-de-tomelloso/de-tomelloso-a-mauthausen/136147/ |archive-date=2025-12-05 |language=es | date = 12 January 2017 | quote = Triangulo azul que los presos españoles llevaban cosido en su camisa y que les identificaba como «Republikanische Spanier» | trans-quote = Blue triangle that Spanish prisoners wore sewn on their shirts and that identified them as "Republican Spaniards"}}</ref><ref name="Stateless Spaniards" >{{cite news | title = Qué significa el triángulo rojo invertido con el que han prometido su cargo Iglesias y Garzón | trans-title = What does the inverted red triangle with which Iglesias and Garzón swore their oath of office mean? | url = https://www.niusdiario.es/nacional/politica/que-significa-triangulo-rojo-garzon-iglesias-prometen-cargo_18_2882520134.html | work = Nius Diario www.niusdiario.es | publisher = Telecinco | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200114201329/https://www.niusdiario.es/nacional/politica/que-significa-triangulo-rojo-garzon-iglesias-prometen-cargo_18_2882520134.html | archive-date = 2020-01-14 | location = Madrid | date = 13 January 2020 | language = es | quote = 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. | trans-quote = 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.}}</ref> |- | {{Gold|▼}} Yellow | rowspan=7 | {{Gold|▲}} An upright yellow triangle to form a {{nowrap|6-pointed star}}.<ref name="1939 star" >{{cite web |title=Classification System in Nazi Concentration Camps |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/classification-system-in-nazi-concentration-camps |website=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) |quote=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. |access-date=February 12, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260109140701/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/classification-system-in-nazi-concentration-camps |archive-date=January 9, 2026}}</ref> | colspan=2 | A Jewish person with no other category. |- | {{Red|▼}} Red | colspan=2 | A Jewish political prisoner. |- | {{colour|#00B000|▼}} Green | colspan=2 | A Jewish habitual criminal.{{NoteTag|name=last2}} |- | {{Purple|▼}} Purple | colspan=2 | A Jehovah's Witness of Jewish descent.<ref name="1939 star" /> |- | {{Pink|▼}} Pink | colspan=2 | A Jewish "sexual offender", {{nowrap| typically a gay or bisexual man.{{NoteTag|name=last2}} }} |- | {{Black|▼}} Black | colspan=2 | An "asocial" or work-shy Jew. |- | '''▽''' Black (voided) | A Jew || rowspan="2" | convicted of miscegenation and labelled as a {{lang|de|Rassenschänder}} (race defiler).{{NoteTag|name=last2}} |- | {{Gold|▼}} Yellow || {{Black|▲}} An upright black{{nbs}}triangle | An "Aryan" woman |- |} {{reflist|group=note| refs = {{NoteTag|name=last2| 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 ==== thumb| Marking codes used by the Nazis.

<gallery class="center" mode="nolines" widths="240px" heights="240px"> File:SarahEwart-066.jpg | Sachsenhausen detainee's red political enemy triangle atop a yellow Jew triangle {{nowrap|(lower left)}} File:Bundesarchiv Bild 152-27-13A, Dachau Konzentrationslager, Häftlinge beim Appell.jpg|Part of a Dachau roll call – day badges visible on detainees File:Prisoners in the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen, Germany, December 19, 1938. Heinrich Hoffman Collection. - NARA - 540178.tif | Sachsenhausen detainee with glasses in the foreground wears a two-colour ID-emblem File:Buchenwald Disabled Jews 13132 crop.jpg | Disabled Jews with a black triangle on a yellow triangle, meaning asocial Jews, Buchenwald, 1938. </gallery>

=== Coloured bars to show multiple categories === [[File: A sick Polish survivor in the Hannover-Ahlem concentration camp receives medicine from a German Red Cross worker.jpg |thumb|250px| Liberated Neuengamme survivor standing on the right has a triangle patch with a top-bar]]

Repeat offenders ({{lang|de|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 imprisonment was for the duration of the war, but might have a different coloured bar if they were drawn from another pool of inmates. * A Jehovah's Witness would have a purple bar. * A homosexual or sex offender would have a pink bar. * An asocial would have a black bar. * Roma and Sinti would usually be incarcerated in special sub-camps until they died, and so would not normally receive a repeat stripe.

From late 1944, to save cloth, Jewish prisoners wore a yellow bar over a regular triangle pointed down to indicate their status. For instance, regular Jews would wear a yellow bar over a red triangle. Jewish criminals would wear a yellow bar over a green triangle.{{citation needed|date=January 2026}}

[[File:The Liberation of Bergen-belsen Concentration Camp, April 1945 BU4010.jpg |thumb|240px| 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.<ref name=Saidel>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zglu2RvoLmgC&q=%22an+x%22+%22concentration+camp%22+-%22x-men%22+-%22x-ray%22&pg=PA77|title=The Jewish Women of Ravensbrück Concentration Camp|author=Rochelle G. Saidel|year=2006|page=76|publisher=Terrace Books |isbn=978-0-299-19864-0|access-date=20 May 2013}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Saidel />

=== Other distinguishing markings === thumb| Other distinguishing markings

Many markings and combinations existed. A prisoner would usually have at least two, and possibly more than six.{{citation needed|date=December 2025}}

==== Strafkompanie (punishment company) ==== {{Main|Strafkompanie}} A {{lang|de|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|date=January 2026}}

==== Fluchtverdächtiger (escape risk) ====

Prisoners "suspected of [attempting to] escape" ({{lang|de|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 {{lang|de|Strafkompanie}} roundel.

==== Funktionshäftling (prisoner-functionary) ==== {{main|Prisoner functionaries|Funktionshäftling}}

A prisoner-functionary ({{lang|de|Funktionshäftling}}), or ''kapo'' (boss), wore a cloth brassard (their {{lang|de|Kennzeichen}}, or identifying mark) to indicate their status. They served as camp guards ({{lang|de|Lagerpolizei}}), barracks clerks ({{lang|de|Blockschreiber}}) and the senior prisoners ({{lang|de|ältesten}}, meaning elders) at the camp ({{lang|de|lagerältester}}), barracks ({{lang|de|blockältester}}) and room ({{lang|de|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.

=== Letters === {{further| German-occupied Europe | The Holocaust in Poland | P (Nazi symbol)}} [[File:Kazimierkiewicz georg 1 hpk.jpg |thumb|360px| 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.{{note|The card also has an ink stamp indicating Dehomag data-entry.}}]] thumb|200px| 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:

* B ({{lang|de|Belgier}}, Belgians) * E ({{lang|de|Engländer}}, "English"; in practice used for all British) * F ({{lang|de|Franzosen}}, French) * I ({{lang|de|Italiener}}, Italians) * J ({{lang|de|Jugoslawen}}, Yugoslavs)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.politika.rs/rubrike/vesti-dana/U-Aushvicu-na-vest-o-oslobodjenju-Beograda.sr.html |title=У Аушвицу, на вест о ослобођењу Београда |author=J. Beoković |website=politika.rs |date=19 October 2009 |language=sr |access-date=26 October 2018}}</ref>{{verify source|date=December 2025}} * N ({{lang|de|Niederländer}}, Dutch) — H (for {{lang|de|Hollander}}) is also recorded<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://khc.qcc.cuny.edu/jacket/ |title=The Jacket from Dachau – One Survivor's Search for Justice, Identity, and Home |website=Kupferberg Holocaust Center Queensborough |access-date=February 26, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211208132922/https://khc.qcc.cuny.edu/jacket/ |archive-date=December 8, 2021}}</ref> * No ({{lang|de|Norweger}}, Norwegian) * P ({{lang|de|Polen}}, Poles) * S ({{lang|de|Spanier}}, generally used for Spanish Republican exiles) * T ({{lang|de|Tscheche}}, Czechs) * U ({{lang|de|Ungarn}}, Hungarians) * Z next to, or on top of, a black triangle ({{lang|de|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 {{lang|de|Polen}}) was cut out of the purple cloth to show the yellow backing beneath.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn523542 |title=Unused forced labor badge, yellow with a purple P, to identify a Polish forced laborer |date=2005 |website=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |access-date=February 26, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140520121158/https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn523542 |archive-date=May 20, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://museeholocauste.ca/en/objects/aba-beers-badge/ |title=Aba Beer's Badge |website=Montreal Holocaust Museum |access-date=February 26, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190823230640/https://museeholocauste.ca/en/objects/aba-beers-badge/ |archive-date=August 23, 2019}}</ref>

===== Examples of nationality-letter marking at Nazi camps =====

<gallery class="center" mode="nolines" widths="180" heights="180" caption="" > File:13cwik.jpg|F on a red triangle (French political enemy) on the Buchenwald clothing of Dr. Joseph Brau File:A1vestonf.JPG|A F-triangle on the Buchenwald clothing of Dr. Joseph Brau File:Nazi concentration camp uniform fabric sample.jpg|A marking meaning Polish political enemy File:IgnacyKwarta.png|Auschwitz detainee {{ill|Ignacy Kwarta|pl}} wears a red P-triangle.{{efn|Meaning a Polish political enemy.}} File:Buchenwald Prisoners 83718.jpg|Dutch Jews wearing a yellow star and the letter N for {{lang|de|Niederländer}} at Mauthausen.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Konzentrationslager Buchenwald 1937-1945. Begleitband zur ständigen historischen Ausstellung|last=Stein|first=Harry|editor=Buchenwald memorial|publisher=Wallstein-Verlag|edition=5th|year=2007|isbn=978-3-89244-222-6|location=Göttingen|pages=81–83|language=de|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u2Xx4fz5K4cC}}</ref> File:SarahEwart-069.JPG|Sachsenhausen-issued red F emblem for a French political enemy  </gallery>

==== Nacht und Nebel ==== [[File:KZ-Hinzert-Plakette-Nacht-und-Nebel.jpg |thumb|240px| F-triangle at Hinzert honors French victims, especially of the ''Nacht und Nebel'' program]]{{main|Nacht und Nebel}}

Some camps assigned {{lang|de|Nacht und Nebel}} (night and fog) prisoners had them wear two large letters NN in yellow.{{citation needed|date=December 2025}}

==== Reformatory inmates (E or EH) ====

{{lang|de|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|date=December 2025}}

==== Police inmates (Polizeihäftlinge) ====

{{lang|de|Polizeihäftlinge}} (police inmates), short for {{lang|de|Polizeilich Sicherungsverwahrte Häftlinge}} (police secure custody inmates), wore either PH in large black letters on a white square or the letter S (for {{lang|de|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 ({{lang|de|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|date=January 2026}}

==== Soviet prisoners of war ==== {{See also|German atrocities committed against Soviet prisoners of war|German war crimes against Soviet civilians}}

Soviet prisoners of war ({{lang|de|russische Kriegsgefangenen}}) assigned to work camps ({{lang|de|Arbeitslager}}) wore two large letters SU (for {{lang|de|sowjetischer Untermensch}}, meaning Soviet sub-human){{Citation needed|date=October 2019}} 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|date=December 2025}}

==== Labour education detainees (Arbeitserziehung Häftling) ====

Labour education detainees ({{lang|de|Arbeitserziehung Häftling}}) wore a white letter A on their black triangle. This stood for {{lang|de|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|date=January 2026}}

== Postwar use == {{main | Red triangle (badge) #After WWII {{!}} Red inverted triangle | Pink triangle | LGBTQ symbols #Triangle badges of Nazi Germany {{!}} LGBTQ triangles }} [[File:Floral tribute at the red triangle, 8 May commemoration 2022, Fort Breendonk.jpg |right|thumb|200px| Floral tribute at the red triangle, 8 May 2022, Fort{{nbs}}Breendonk.]] {{further | anti-communism | Cold War }} === Reclaimed symbols === {{See also | Reclaimed symbol | #Symbols at protests and rallies }} Some of the symbols were reclaimed as symbols of pride after the war.{{sfnq| Gregson |2024 |q=Red triangle: historical symbol of persecution and pride}} The inverted red, pink, purple, black, and blue triangles have all been reclaimed by various remembrance and anti-fascist groups, particularly in Europe.<ref name="Gregson 2024 Pink & Red" >{{cite web |author1=Julie Gregson |title=Red triangle symbol: Germany debating a ban |url=https://www.dw.com/en/germany-debates-banning-red-triangle-symbol-linked-to-hamas/a-69840776 |publisher=Deutsche Welle |date=4 August 2024 |quote=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.}}</ref><ref name="Searchlight">{{cite web | last1 = Silver | first1 = Steve | title = Berlin and the red triangle | url = https://searchlightmagazine.com/2024/08/berlin-and-the-red-triangle/ | website = Searchlight | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20250906130449/https://searchlightmagazine.com/2024/08/berlin-and-the-red-triangle/ | archive-date = 2025-09-06 | date = 16 August 2024}}</ref> For example, the Association of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime – Federation of Antifascists (VVN-BdA) and other members of the International Federation of Resistance Fighters – Association of Anti-Fascists use the red triangle as part of their emblem.<ref name="FIR VVN antifa" >{{cite news |title=VVN-BdA supports FIR campaign – Fédération Internationale des Résistants |url=https://www.fir.at/en/vvn-bda-supports-fir-campaign/ |publisher=International Federation of Resistance Fighters – Association of Anti-Fascists (FIR) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251202171558/https://www.fir.at/en/vvn-bda-supports-fir-campaign/ |archive-date=2025-12-02}}</ref> The pink triangle has been used worldwide since the 1970s. The red inverted triangle has been mostly used in Europe.<ref name="nouvelobs 2017" >{{cite web| date = 23 February 2017 | author-link = Baptiste Legrand | trans-title = Jean-Luc Mélenchon: what does the red triangle on his jacket symbolize? | title = Jean-Luc Mélenchon: que symbolise le triangle rouge sur sa veste? | work = L'Obs | url = https://www.nouvelobs.com/presidentielle-2017/20170223.OBS5711/jean-luc-melenchon-que-symbolise-le-triangle-rouge-sur-sa-veste.html| archive-date = 2018-07-07 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180707005744/https://www.nouvelobs.com/presidentielle-2017/20170223.OBS5711/jean-luc-melenchon-que-symbolise-le-triangle-rouge-sur-sa-veste.html}}</ref>

File: Internationale vrouwendag, bijeenkomst bij het Ravensbrück-monument in Amsterdam, Bestanddeelnr 933-2591.jpg | Women with symbols of all persecuted groups on International Women's Day (8 March) at the Ravensbrück monument in Amsterdam in 1985.<ref>{{Cite web | title = Internationale vrouwendag, bijeenkomst bij het Ravensbrück-monument in Amsterdam; vrouwen met symbolen van alle vervolgde groepen | publisher = Nationaal Archief | url = https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onderzoeken/fotocollectie/ad43fa16-d0b4-102d-bcf8-003048976d84 | access-date = 2025-09-15 | website = www.nationaalarchief.nl }}</ref>

</gallery>

=== Memorials === {{See also|#LGBTQ Holocaust memorials}}

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|date=May 2025}}

File:KZ Sachsenhausen - zentrales Mahnmal.JPG | Sachsenhausen memorial

File:Memorial with Prisoners Triangle Badges and Star of David Badge - Dachau Concentration Camp Site - Dachau - Bavaria - Germany.jpg | Various badges on a Dachau memorial.

File:Holocaust Memorial in Estonia.jpg | On the Klooga Jewish victims' memorial

File:Gedenktafel Rosa Winkel Nollendorfplatz.jpg | Pink triangle plaque honouring gay victims, a subway station in{{nbs}}Berlin.

Image:KZ Mauthausen Mahntafel ZJ.jpeg | Commemorative plaque at Mauthausen camp recalling the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses.{{efn| {{langx|de|Zeugen Jehovas||Jehovah's Witnesses}}.}}

File:In memory of homosexual.JPG | Pink triangle (''Rosa Winkel'' in German) memorial for gay men killed at Buchenwald

</gallery>

=== Red inverted triangles in political symbols === {{see also|Post–World War II anti-fascism|Red triangle}} {{main|Red inverted triangle}} {{Multiple image | align = right | direction = vertical | image_gap = 20 | total_width = 120 | caption_align = center | border = infobox | image1 = VVN-BdA Logo.svg  | caption1 = VVN-BdA | image2 = KdAW_logo_DDR.png | caption2 = KdAW }}

==== Early organizations in post-war Germany ==== {{main|VVN-BdA|Committee of Antifascist Resistance Fighters}}

One of the first was {{ill|Committees for the Victims of Fascism|de|OdF-Ausschüsse}} ({{langx|de|OdF-Ausschüsse|link=no}}).

The Association of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime – Federation of Antifascists (VVN{{nbh}}BdA) was founded in West Germany soon after the end of World War Two.

The Committee of Antifascist Resistance Fighters (KdAW){{efn| {{langx|de| Komitee der antifaschistischen Widerstandskämpfer}}.}} was formed in 1953.{{verify source| reason = this is on the main page got the group, but without a footnote|date=December 2025}} It functioned as the East German counterpart of the VVN ({{langx|de| Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes || Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime}}). The KdAW played an important role in the commemoration of German resistance to Nazism and The Holocaust in East Germany.<ref>{{Cite book | title = DDR Handbuch |publisher = Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik |year=1985 |isbn=978-3-8046-8642-7 |editor-last=Ulrich |editor-first=Horst |volume=1 |language=de |trans-title = DDR Handbook}}</ref> East Germany utilised such commemorative functions to emphasise the anti-fascist orientation of the state.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bouma |first=Amieke | title = German Post-Socialist Memory Culture: Epistemic Nostalgia | date = 2019-07-30 |publisher = Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-485-4467-7 |location = Amsterdam |doi=10.1515/9789048544677}}</ref> It also included survivors of concentration camps, former prisoners of Brandenburg-Görden Prison, veterans of the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War, and others.<ref name="Runden Ecke">{{Cite web | title = Komitee der Antifaschistischen Widerstandskämpfer | url = https://www.runde-ecke-leipzig.de/sammlung/pop_zusatz.php?w=w00125 | access-date = 2024-02-02 |website = runde-ecke-leipzig.de | publisher = Museum in der "Runden Ecke" [Museum in the 'Round Corner', Leipzig]}}</ref>

==== Other groups who use the red inverted triangle ====

{{Multiple image | align = right | direction = vertical | image_gap = 20 | total_width = 120 | caption_align = center | border = infobox | image3 = ANED logo.svg | caption3 = {{ ill | lt =ANED|Associazione nazionale ex deportati nei campi nazisti|it}} {{efn| {{langx|it| Associazione nazionale ex deportati nei campi nazisti||National Association of Former Nazi Camp Deportees}}.}} }} {{Multiple image | align = right | direction = vertical | image_gap = 20 | total_width = 180 | caption_align = center | border = infobox | image4 = Logo Antifaschistisches Infoblatt.png | caption4 = Antifaschistisches Infoblatt | image5 = RL LIBERTE CHERIE.png | caption5 = ''Respectable Loge Liberté Chérie'' }}

* {{ill|National Association of Former Nazi Camp Deportees|it|Associazione nazionale ex deportati nei campi nazisti}} (ANED) {{langx|it| 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 black swastika.<ref name="Anti-Fascist Action" >{{cite web |last1 = Silver |first1=Steve | title = Berlin and the red triangle |magazine=Searchlight | url = https://searchlightmagazine.com/2024/08/berlin-and-the-red-triangle/ | date = 16 August 2024 |quote = 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").}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/47917/have-antifa-members-used-an-inverted-red-triangle-as-a-symbol|title=Have Antifa members used an inverted red triangle as a symbol?|website=Skeptics Stack Exchange}}</ref>

* ''Antifaschistisches Infoblatt'' (''AIB'') is an anti-fascist publication in Berlin, Germany.<ref name = "lnet">{{cite news| title = AIB - Antifaschistisches Info Blatt| url = http://www.linksnet.de/de/organisation/aib_antifaschistisches_info_blatt |access-date = 9 December 2016 | work = Linksnet |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author = Bernd Hüttner| title = Handbuch Alternativmedien 2011/2012: Printmedien, Freie Radios, Archive & Verlage in der BRD, Österreich und der Schweiz| url = https://mebooks.google.com/books?id=6qqLUfuDaVoC&pg=PA184 | year = 2011|publisher = AG SPAK Bücher|language = de|isbn = 978-3-940865-22-9|page = 184}}</ref>

* ''Liberté chérie'' (French for "Cherished Liberty") was a Masonic Lodge founded in 1943 by imprisoned freemasons, from the Belgian resistance,<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.thesquaremagazine.com/mag/article/202301loge-liberte-cherie/ | title=Loge Liberté cherie | quote = Liberté chérie was a Masonic Lodge founded in 1943 by Belgian Resistance }}</ref> at Esterwegen concentration camp. It was one of the few lodges of Freemasons founded within a Nazi concentration camp during the Second World War.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.thesquaremagazine.com/mag/article/202301loge-liberte-cherie/ | title = Lodge Liberté Chérie Chérie | website = thesquaremagazine.com }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.libertylodge95.org/previous-articles/2rtrbg8wmod2i2xz5cikj6m5rnwv44 | title = Lodge Liberté Chérie | website = libertylodge95.org }}</ref> (see also: {{slink| Persecution of Freemasons |Nazi Germany and occupied Europe}} and Grand Anti-Masonic Exhibition)

* NIKA ({{langx|de| Nationalismus ist keine Alternative ||Nationalism is not an alternative}}) was started in Germany in response to the rise of Germany's far-right party, the AfD ({{langx|de|Alternative für Deutschland||Alternative for Germany}}).<ref name="Nasr" > 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: {{cite news | last1 = Nasr | first1 = Joseph | title = German far-right AfD party elects new leader backed by radical wing | date = 1 December 2019 | url = https://www.reuters.com/article/world/german-far-right-afd-party-elects-new-leader-backed-by-radical-wing-idUSKBN1Y40A6/ | quote = [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 |work=Reuters | others = photo credit: Fabian Bimmer}}</ref>

* Qassam Brigades ({{langx|ar|كتئب القسام| Kataeb al-Qassam |link=no}}) have used an inverted red triangle ({{langx|ar|المثلث الأحمر المقلوب}}) in their propaganda videos since November 2023.<ref name="aja.ws - e4x3gn" >{{Cite news| trans-title = Has Qassam's media outperformed the occupation during the year of war on Gaza? | script-title = ar: هل تفوق إعلام القسام على الاحتلال خلال عام من الحرب على غزة؟ | url = https://www.aljazeera.net/news/2024/10/7/%D9%85%D8%BA%D8%B1%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%83%D9%8A%D9%81-%D8%AA%D9%81%D9%88%D9%82-%D8%A5%D8%B9%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%B4 | website = aljazeera.net | archive-date = 2024-10-08 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20241008003906/https://www.aljazeera.net/news/2024/10/7/%D9%85%D8%BA%D8%B1%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%83%D9%8A%D9%81-%D8%AA%D9%81%D9%88%D9%82-%D8%A5%D8%B9%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%B4 | script-quote = ar: 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. | trans-quote = 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.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | script-title = ar: لارتباطه بحماس.. جدل في ألمانيا حول حظر رمز "المثلث الأحمر" | publisher = DW | date = 2024-08-08 | url = https://www.dw.com/ar/%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AA%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B7%D9%87-%D8%A8%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B3-%D8%AC%D8%AF%D9%84-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A3%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D8%AD%D9%88%D9%84-%D8%AD%D8%B8%D8%B1-%D8%B1%D9%85%D8%B2-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AB%D9%84%D8%AB-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%B1/a-69871450 | work = dw.com |language=ar}}</ref> The inverted red triangle was later included in the logo of their Military Media division.<ref name="new logo" >{{cite news | trans-title = The "inverted red triangle" returns to the forefront of discussions with the return of Qassam operations in Gaza. | script-title = ar: "المثلث الأحمر المقلوب" يعود لواجهة التفاعلات مع عودة عمليات القسام بغزة | url = https://www.aljazeera.net/news/2025/4/21/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AB%D9%84%D8%AB-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%B1-%D9%88%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%AA-%D9%8A%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A5%D9%84%D9%89-%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AC%D9%87%D8%A9 | website = www.aljazeera.net | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20250422012116/https://www.aljazeera.net/news/2025/4/21/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AB%D9%84%D8%AB-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%B1-%D9%88%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%AA-%D9%8A%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A5%D9%84%D9%89-%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AC%D9%87%D8%A9 | archive-date = 2025-04-22 |language=ar}}</ref><ref name="old logo" >{{Cite web | title=Old logo | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSr4XwbfBLw | publisher= Al Arabiya | via=YouTube}} timestamp: 0:34</ref> 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: {{ ill |RLF Voiron|fr}}.<ref>{{cite web| title = RLF Voiron – Ni Le Pen ni ses idées! | url = https://rlf38.org | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20250920003730/https://rlf38.org/ | archive-date = 2025-09-20 |language=fr-FR}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last1 = Schoene | first1 = Edouard | title = Voiron. Face à l'extrême droite, comprendre pour agir | url = https://travailleur-alpin.fr/2023/01/16/voiron-face-a-lextreme-droite-comprendre-pour-agir/ | website = :fr: Travailleur alpin | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230130091417/https://travailleur-alpin.fr/2023/01/16/voiron-face-a-lextreme-droite-comprendre-pour-agir/ | date = 16 January 2023 | archive-date = 2023-01-30 |language=fr-FR}}</ref>

* {{ ill |Territoires de la Mémoire|fr|Antisémitisme en Belgique #Difficulté du travail de mémoire|nl|Territoires de la Mémoire}} (Territories of Memory) and {{ ill |Triangle 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.<ref name="Territoires" >{{cite web | title = L'Extême droite c'est toujours NON en fait ! | url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVkkt5IgpIo |author=@territoiresdelamemoire4559 | publisher = Territoires de la Mémoire | via = YouTube | date = 8 May 2024 | quote = 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 🔻 | trans-quote = 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 🔻 |language=fr-BE}} {{long quote|date=December 2025}}</ref>{{efn| 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.<ref name="antis definition" >{{cite web | title = Glossaire - Antisémitisme | trans-title = Glossary - Anti-Semitism | url = https://trianglerouge.be/glossaire/antisemitisme/ | website = trianglerouge.be | publisher = Triangle Rouge | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230608141003/https://trianglerouge.be/glossaire/antisemitisme/ | archive-date = 2023-06-08 | trans-quote = 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".}}</ref>}} (See also: {{Section link| Avenue Louise | World War II}})

* United Left ({{langx|es|Izquierda Unida}}), Spain.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://izquierdaunida.org/ |title=Homepage |website=Izquierda Unida |access-date=February 12, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260102212637/https://izquierdaunida.org/ |archive-date=January 2, 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://izquierdaunida.org/tienda/pin-triangulo-rojo/ |title=Pin Triángulo Rojo |website=Tienda de Izquierda Unida |access-date=February 12, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324224524/https://izquierdaunida.org/tienda/pin-triangulo-rojo/ |archive-date=March 24, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://izquierdaunida.org/1mayo2021/ |title=«1º de Mayo. Unidad de clase contra el fascismo» – Manifiesto de Izquierda Unida por el 1 de mayo de 2021 |website=Izquierda Unida |language=Spanish |access-date=February 12, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210517171105/https://izquierdaunida.org/1mayo2021/ |archive-date=May 17, 2021}}</ref> Their membership cards feature a red, green, and purple triangle.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.facebook.com/iuandalucia/posts/-estrenamos-nuevo-carnet-de-militante-en-izquierda-unida-y-adem%C3%A1s-vais-a-recibir/4279806885433831/ |title=Estrenamos nuevo carnet de militante en Izquierda Unida... |language=Spanish |date=June 18, 2021 |author=IU Andalucia |website=Facebook |access-date=February 12, 2025 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20260118084205/https://www.facebook.com/iuandalucia/posts/-estrenamos-nuevo-carnet-de-militante-en-izquierda-unida-y-adem%C3%A1s-vais-a-recibir/4279806885433831/ |archive-date=January 18, 2026}}</ref> 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".<ref>{{Cite tweet | number = 1354370098547593217 | user = IU_Madrid | author = IU Madrid🔻 | date = 27 January 2021 | url = https://x.com/IU_Madrid/status/1354370098547593217 | archive-url = https://archive.today/20260118015024/https://x.com/IU_Madrid/status/1354370098547593217 | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2026-01-18 | df = dmy | language = es | title = 🔻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 oprimidos, cuyo holocausto recordamos hoy. | trans-title = 🔻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. }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title = IU Madrid🔻 | url = https://x.com/IU_Madrid/status/1354370098547593217 | date = 27 January 2021 | quote = 🔻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. | trans-quote = 🔻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. }}</ref>

===== The Red Wedge and other origins ===== {{further | Red Wedge | Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge | Red triangle (Palestinian symbol) {{!}} Palestinian red triangle | Israeli occupation of Palestine | Comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany {{!}} "Nazi" occupation of Palestine | Palestinian propaganda }} [[File:Klinom Krasnym Bej Belych.JPG |thumb|240px| Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, El Lissitzky, 1919]]

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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://searchlightmagazine.com/2024/08/berlin-and-the-red-triangle/|title=Berlin and the red triangle | Searchlight|first=Steve|last=Silver|date=16 August 2024|website=searchlightmagazine.com}}</ref> 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.{{efn| Such as Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.}} 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hamas-2017-document-full|title=Hamas in 2017: The document in full|website=Middle East Eye}}</ref>

=== Medals and honours === {{see also | Red inverted triangle #Service medals | Historiography of World War II }} {{Commons category|Category:Auschwitz Cross}} {{Multiple image | align = right | direction = vertical | total_width = 150 | caption_align = center | border = infobox | image2 = Croix du Prisonnier Politique 1940-1945.jpg | caption2 =  Belgian Political Prisoner's Cross | image3 = Krzyż Oświęcimski Szymona Klugera, MZ-326-O 04.jpg | caption3 = "P" on Poland's Auschwitz{{nbs}}Cross }}

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.<ref name="decree"/>

==== Political Prisoner's Cross (Belgium)==== {{See also|Political Prisoner's Cross 1940–1945|Orders, decorations, and medals of Belgium #World War II {{!}} Belgian WWII medals|National Museum of the Resistance|Belgium in World War II}}

The ''Political Prisoner's Cross 1940–1945'' ({{langx|fr|Croix du Prisonnier Politique 1940–1945}}, {{langx|nl|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.<ref name="decree">{{cite web |url=https://www.identifymedals.com/database/medals-by-country/belgium/the-political-prisoners-cross-1940-1945/ |title=The Political Prisoner's Cross 1940-1945 |website=Identify Medals |access-date=February 12, 2026}}</ref>

==== Medal of the KdAW (East Germany, 1975) ==== {{See also|East German uprising of 1953}}

From 1975 onwards, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR, also known as East Germany) released a medal for the "Committee of Antifascist Resistance Fighters" (KdAW, {{langx|de|Komitee der Antifaschistischen Widerstandskämpfer}}) of the GDR that included a red triangle.<ref name="DDR medal" /> It was named {{langx|de| Medaille des Komitees der antifaschistischen Widerstadskämpfer der DDR | |Medal of the Committee of Anti-fascist Resistance Fighters of East Germany}}.<ref name="DDR medal" >{{Cite web | title = Medaille des Komitee der antifaschistischen Widerstandskämpfer | publisher = DDR Museum Berlin | url = https://www.ddr-museum.de/de/objects/1023642 | access-date = 2025-07-26 | website = www.ddr-museum.de | date = 18 February 2017 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal | date = 1958-02-22 | title = Statut der "Medaille für Kämpfer gegen den Faschismus 1933-1945 | trans-title = Statute of the "Medal for Fighters against Fascism 1933-1945" |journal=Gesetzblatt der DDR [Law Gazette of the German Democratic Republic] |language=de| volume=1 |page=198}}</ref>

==== Auschwitz Cross (Poland)==== {{See also|Auschwitz Cross|:Commons:Category:Auschwitz Cross {{!}} more images on Wikimedia Commons|P (Nazi symbol)|Orders, decorations, and medals of Poland {{!}} Medals of Poland|Cross of the Warsaw Uprising|Sonderkommando Revolt in Auschwitz {{!}} Auschwitz Revolt (7 October 1944)|Poland in World War II}}

The ''Auschwitz Cross'' ({{langx|pl|Krzyż Oświęcimski}}), instituted on 14 March 1985, was a Polish decoration awarded to honour survivors of Nazi German concentration camps, including Auschwitz.<ref>{{Cite web | title = Auschwitz Cross | url = https://kolekcje.polin.pl/en/auschwitz-cross |access-date = 2025-01-30 | website = Polin – Museum of the History of Polish Jews }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web | last = Gitelman | first = Zvi | title = American Jewish Yearbook 2004 | publisher = AJC | url = http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/2004_11_CentralEastEurope.pdf |access-date = 2008-01-23}}</ref> Some of the people awarded the medal were Jewish, including Szymon Kluger (Shimson Kleuger).<ref>{{Cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250714022448/https://muzea.malopolska.pl/en/objects-list/2894 | url=https://muzea.malopolska.pl/en/objects-list/2894 | title=Szymon Kluger's Auschwitz Cross | archive-date=2025-07-14 | quote= 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}}</ref>

=== LGBTQ symbols (1990s onwards)=== {{main|Pink triangle|LGBTQ symbols #Nazi triangle badges}} {{further | persecution of gay men in Nazi Germany| transgender people in Nazi Germany | Röhm scandal | Gay Nazis myth| AIDS–Holocaust metaphor}} [[File:Institut für Sexualwissenschaft - Bibliothek 1933.jpg |thumb|320px| The photographs of Sturmabteilung raid on the Institute for Sex Research, on 6 May 1933 are iconic images of the prosecution of gay and transgender people by Nazi Germany.]]

Stories of queer holocaust victims were largely ignored until the 1990s.<ref name="Sydney museum" >{{cite web | title = The stories behind the pink triangle | url = https://sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au/news/the-stories-behind-the-pink-triangle/ | website = Sydney Jewish Museum | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200530073841/https://sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au/news/the-stories-behind-the-pink-triangle/ | archive-date = 2020-05-30 | date = 6 May 2022}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pinktrianglelegacies.org/learn/history|title=Nazi Persecution of Queer People | Pink Triangle Legacies Project|website=Pink Triangle LP}}</ref> 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.

File: Recreation of Silence Equals Death.svg | Silence Equals Death

File:Bi triangles.svg | The biangles symbol of bisexuality{{efn|designed by Liz Nania}}

File:Straightally.svg | "Safe space" symbol: pink triangle in a green{{nbs}}circle

File:Equality Michigan logo icon.svg | Equality Michigan

</gallery>

==== LGBTQ Holocaust memorials ==== 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.<ref name="auto"/>

<gallery mode="packed" heights="180px"> File:Homomonumentwestermarkt.jpg | Amsterdam's ''Homomonument''.{{efn| uses three pink triangles symbolically to memorialize gay men killed in the Holocaust other victims of anti-gay violence.}} File:Gay and Lesbian Memorial - Tel Aviv (5).jpg | {{ill|Monument to the Gays and Lesbians Persecuted in the Holocaust (Tel Aviv)|he|אנדרטה לזכר ההומואים והלסביות שנרדפו בשואה (תל אביב)| lt =Monument to the Gays and Lesbians Persecuted in the Holocaust}} in{{nbs}}Tel{{nbs}}Aviv.{{efn| Constructed in January 2014. See also: Tel Aviv Pride and Lehava.}} File:Pink Triangle Sydney,.jpg | The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Holocaust Memorial.{{efn| LGBTQ history in Sydney, Australia: Gay gang murders and Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.}} </gallery><!--

File:Ac.homomonument.jpg

File:Denkmal für im Nationalsozialismus verfolgte Homosexuelle (Tel Aviv).jpg

File:Sydney Gay and Lesbian Memorial.jpg | Sydney memorial, side view, showing pillars

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==={{visible anchor|Red triangle lapel pins}} in 21st Century Europe === {{further | Politics of Belgium | Left-wing politics in France | Far-left politics in France | Communism in France | :fr: Triangle rouge #Antifascisme | Politics of Spain }} {{commons category| People wearing a red triangle pin }}

In 2020, Spanish politicians Pablo Iglesias (Second Deputy Prime Minister of Spain) and Alberto Garzón (Ministry of Consumer Affairs) wore red triangle lapel pins while being sworn into government by the King of Spain.<ref name="niusdiario.es 13 Jan 2020" /> Alberto Garzón has been wearing the symbol since 2016.<ref>{{cite news | last1 = Sojo | first1 = José Rodríguez | title = ¿Qué significa el pin con el que Pablo Iglesias y Alberto Garzón han prometido su cargo? | url = https://www.elconfidencial.com/espana/2020-01-13/pin-triangulo-invertido-pablo-iglesias-alberto-garzon-556_2409063/ | work = elconfidencial.com | date = 13 January 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200114132022/https://www.elconfidencial.com/espana/2020-01-13/pin-triangulo-invertido-pablo-iglesias-alberto-garzon-556_2409063/ | archive-date = 2020-01-14 | language = es | quote = 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".| trans-quote = 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".}}</ref>

Red inverted triangle lapel pins are widely distributed Western European countries. Red triangle pins are worn by socialist, communist, and other left-wing or far-left politicians in countries such as Belgium, Spain, and France.<ref name="23 February 2017" /><ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.solidair.org/artikels/rode-driehoek-de-arbeidersstrijd-en-het-antifascistisch-symbool | title = Rode Driehoek: de arbeidersstrijd en het antifascistisch symbool | trans-title = Red Triangle: The Workers' Struggle and the Anti-Fascist Symbol | work = Solidair (Solidarity) :nl: Solidair (blad)| date = 31 July 2019 |language=nl}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| title = Qué significa el triángulo rojo invertido con el que han prometido su cargo Iglesias y Garzón | trans-title = What does the inverted red triangle with which Iglesias and Garzón swore their oath of office mean? | url = https://www.niusdiario.es/nacional/politica/que-significa-triangulo-rojo-garzon-iglesias-prometen-cargo_18_2882520134.html | website = www.niusdiario.es | publisher = NIUS | date = 13 January 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200114201329/https://www.niusdiario.es/nacional/politica/que-significa-triangulo-rojo-garzon-iglesias-prometen-cargo_18_2882520134.html | archive-date = 2020-01-14 |language=es}}</ref>

Left-wing French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon wore a red triangle lapel pin during his campaign, the message was particularly aimed at diffentiating himself from far-right National Front candidate Marine Le Pen (daughter of the party's even more controversial founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen).<ref name="23 February 2017" /> <blockquote> 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..." <ref name="23 February 2017" >{{cite web| date = 23 February 2017 | author-link = Baptiste Legrand | trans-title = Jean-Luc Mélenchon: what does the red triangle on his jacket symbolize? | title = Jean-Luc Mélenchon: que symbolise le triangle rouge sur sa veste? | work = L'Obs | url = https://www.nouvelobs.com/presidentielle-2017/20170223.OBS5711/jean-luc-melenchon-que-symbolise-le-triangle-rouge-sur-sa-veste.html| archive-date = 2018-07-07 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180707005744/https://www.nouvelobs.com/presidentielle-2017/20170223.OBS5711/jean-luc-melenchon-que-symbolise-le-triangle-rouge-sur-sa-veste.html |language=fr}} {{verify source| reason = can a French speaker verify the translation please|date=January 2026}}</ref></blockquote>

French politician Ugo Bernalicis, from the Left Party (previously from the Socialist Party), represents the department of Nord, in the French National Assembly.<ref>{{Cite web| url = http://www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/deputes/fiche/OMC_PA720430 | title = M. Ugo Bernalicis | access-date = 20 December 2017 |work=National Assembly |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://lafranceinsoumise.fr/2017/06/21/ugo-bernalicis-depute-du-nord/ |title=Ugo Bernalicis, Depute du Nord |date=June 21, 2017 |website=La France insoumise |language=French |access-date=February 12, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190527210630/https://lafranceinsoumise.fr/2017/06/21/ugo-bernalicis-depute-du-nord/ |archive-date=May 27, 2019}}</ref> Bernalicis was born into a family close to the communist movement, with a militant father, an elected grandfather and a great-grandfather who was deported to the Dachau concentration camp because of his political convictions.<ref>{{cite web|author= P. Gril and Julien Chehida | url = http://rmc.bfmtv.com/emission/ugo-26-ans-depute-la-france-insoumise-j-ai-envie-de-casser-les-codes-a-l-assemblee-1190169.html| title = Ugo, 26 ans, député La France insoumise: "J'ai envie de casser les codes à l'Assemblée" |language=fr| publisher = rmc.bfmtv.com| date =20 September 2017 |access-date = 20 December 2017}}</ref>

File:Jean-Luc Mélenchon 2022 (cropped).jpg | Jean-Luc Mélenchon (photo 2022)

File:Réunion publique FI, Le Creusot, 15 May 2019 - 01 (cropped).jpg | Ugo Bernalicis, Left Party, Nord, French National Assembly (photo 2019)

File:Alberto Garzón 2020 (cropped).jpg | Alberto Garzón,{{efn| Spain's Minister of Consumer Affairs }} Communist Party of Spain (photo 2020)

File:Pablo Iglesias 2020 (portrait).jpg | Pablo Iglesias Turrión, Podemos, Spain (photo 2020)

File:Prestation, tribune Christophe Lacroix (cropped).jpg | Christophe Lacroix,{{efn| Representative for Liège in the Belgium's Chamber of Representatives, Socialist Party }} Belgium (photo 2019)

File:Stéphane Crusnière - October 2016 (cropped).jpg | {{ ill |Stéphane Crusnière|fr||nl}}, Socialist Party, Belgium (photo 2016)

File:Jos D'Haese, Back to the Climate 2021 (1).jpg | Jos D'Haese, Workers' Party of Belgium,{{efn| WPB, PVDA-PTB }} at the 2021 ''Back to the Climate'' march in Brussels

</gallery><!--

File:PVDA militants, May Day 2022 in Aalst, Belgium.jpg | Workers' Party (PVDA) supporters in Aalst, Belgium (photo 2022) {{clarify| reason = can someone familiar with Belgian politics recognise anyone in the photo? |date=September 2025}}

File:2019-06-22 14-40-42 manif-Belfort.jpg | Jean-Luc Mélenchon at a demonstration against the redundancy plan of the General Electric company in Belfort on 22 June 2019

File:2019-06-22 14-40-42 manif-Belfort (cropped).jpg | Jean-Luc Mélenchon {{nowrap|(22 June 2019)}}

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=== Symbols at protests and rallies === {{Multiple image| perrow = 1/2 | total_width = 360 | caption_align = center | footer_align = center | image1 = March Against Racism and Fascism (33524936388).jpg | caption1 = Variant anti-fascist symbol, based on the red and yellow badge of Jewish political prisoners, on a banner in New York in March 2019.{{efn| after the Christchurch mosque massacre committed by an Australian Neonazi in New Zealand. At a rally against the Christchurch mosque massacre and other fascist violence. ''March Against Racism and Fascism'' in New York City on 16 March 2019.<ref>{{cite web | title = March Against Racism and Fascism | url = https://www.flickr.com/photos/otto-yamamoto/33524936388/ | publisher = The All-Nite Images | via = flickr | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20250914165238/https://www.flickr.com/photos/otto-yamamoto/33524936388/ |archive-date=2025-09-14 |date=16 March 2019 |quote=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)</ref> Similar symbols have been used elsewhere, such as by ''Jewish Anti Fascist Action'' in the UK and at protests elsewhere.<ref>{{Cite web | title=Jewish pro-Palestine protest in Australia | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-19/australian-palestinian-and-jewish-community-react-to-conflict-/100138740 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250913133959/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-19/australian-palestinian-and-jewish-community-react-to-conflict-/100138740 | archive-date=2025-09-13}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://phm.org.uk/events_new/online-lunchtime-lecture-lgbtqia-holocaust-survival-and-anti-fascist-activism/ |title=Online Lunchtime Lecture: LGBTQIA+ Holocaust survival and anti-facist activism |date=November 21, 2025 |website=People's History Museum |access-date=February 12, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250918042024/https://phm.org.uk/events_new/online-lunchtime-lecture-lgbtqia-holocaust-survival-and-anti-fascist-activism/ |archive-date=September 18, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://antifascistnetwork.org/2015/07/01/update-on-anti-fascist-mobilisations-this-saturday/ |title=Update on anti-fascist mobilisations this Saturday |date=1 July 2015 |website=Anti-Fascist Network |access-date=February 12, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260109080314/https://antifascistnetwork.org/2015/07/01/update-on-anti-fascist-mobilisations-this-saturday/ |archive-date=January 9, 2026}}</ref>}} | image4 = Antifa logo.svg | image5 = Antifa_Her_zu_uns.svg | footer = ''Left:'' Modern anti-fascist symbol used in the USA. ''Right:'' "Come to us", 1932 poster from Antifaschistische Aktion, opponents of the original Nazi Party in Weimar Germany. }} {{See also|2024–2025 German anti-extremism protests}}

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.{{efn|name=StarPin| Example: The website of "Jewdas", a anti-Zionist Jewish organisation, sold a variant anti-fascist symbol pin on a backing card based on a famous Ukrainian Jewish anti-Zionist poster.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://jewdas.org/pin |title=Jewish Antifascist Action Enamel Pin Badge |website=Jewdas |access-date=February 12, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260131081200/https://jewdas.org/pin |archive-date=January 31, 2026}}</ref>}} The yellow star was depicted at rallies in Israel and New York against Donald Trump's ban on Muslim immigration.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.972mag.com/photos-americans-israelis-protest-trump-refugee-ban-in-jlm-and-tel-aviv/|title=PHOTOS: Americans, Israelis protest Trump refugee ban in J'lm and Tel Aviv|first=Natasha|last=Roth-Rowland|date=30 January 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/far-from-us-trumps-ban-rankles-israeli-press/|title=Far from US, Trump’s ban rankles Israeli press|first=Ilan Ben|last=Zion|date=29 January 2017|via=Times of Israel}}</ref>{{Additional citation needed|reason=numerous sources are available, but I've only added one so far|date=January 2026}} 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).<ref name="commentary" /> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://forward.com/fast-forward/622549/red-triangle-inverted-hamas-symbol-brooklyn/|title=Pro-Palestinian vandals are painting red inverted triangles on their targets. What does it mean?|first=Lauren|last=Markoe|date=8 August 2024}}</ref>

File:Queercore chicago pride parade.jpg |Pink triangle symbol at a queer pride parade on a banner about the Stonewall riots (1994)

File:19.Assembly.ActUp.NYC.30March2017 (33609021152).jpg |ACT UP sign with an upward-pointing pink{{nbs}}triangle (2017)

File:Never Again Means Never Again (48383762021).jpg | Yellow star and "Never Again Means Never Again" at a protest about immigration detention (2019)

</gallery>{{clear left}}

==== Protests against Germany's AfD ==== <gallery class="center" mode="packed" heights="240" widths="240" >

File:15.05.2021 - AfD Landesparteitag Niedersachsen (Braunschweig) (51181534584).jpg | Protest against Alternative for Germany (AfD) in 2021.{{efn| 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.<ref name="Nasr" />}}

File:AfD-Ban.jpg | VVN-BdA banner at a protest against Alternative for Germany (AfD) in{{nbs}}2025.{{efn| Photo shows a protest in Frankfurt in 2025.{{efn| Translation: "Ban the AfD now! Ban Nazi parties, before it's too late".<ref name="JCW 2024" >(shows a different photograph of the same banner design) {{cite news | first1 = Jens-Christian | last1 = Wagner | author1-link = Jens-Christian Wagner | title = Jens-Christian Wagner, Leiter der Stiftung der Gedenkstätten Buchenwald und Mittelbau-Dora in Thüringen, hat gefordert, ein AfD Verbotsverfahren vor dem Bundesverfassungsgericht anzustoßen | trans-title = Jens-Christian Wagner, head of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorial Foundation in Thuringia, has called for AfD ban proceedings to be initiated before the Federal Constitutional Court | url = https://www.ad-hoc-news.de/politik/jens-christian-wagner-leiter-der-stiftung-der-gedenkstaetten-buchenwald/65321631 | work = www.ad-hoc-news.de | date = 14 June 2024 |language=de}}</ref>}}

</gallery>

=== United States president Donald Trump === {{further |Donald Trump and fascism |Post–World War II anti-fascism }} [[File:Step one to genocide (32568772826).jpg |thumb|250px| Yellow star at a protest against Islamophobia in the USA (2017)<ref>{{cite web | author = Tim Pierce | title = step one to genocide | quote = Sign with a yellow "Jude" Star of David: "Registration: Step One to Genocide / Jews in Solidarity With Muslims" | website = www.flickr.com | url = https://www.flickr.com/photos/qwrrty/32568772826/ | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190117051734/https://www.flickr.com/photos/qwrrty/32568772826/ | archive-date = 2019-01-17 }}</ref>]]

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.<ref name="inews.co.uk 21 March 2017" >{{cite web | date = 21 March 2017 | first1 = Karl | last1 = McDonald | title = Anti-Trump resistance campaign criticised for looking like Nazi concentration camp badges | url = https://inews.co.uk/news/world/anti-trump-resistance-campaign-criticised-looking-like-nazi-concentration-camp-badges-54217 | archive-url = https://archive.today/20200703055413/https://inews.co.uk/news/world/anti-trump-resistance-campaign-criticised-looking-like-nazi-concentration-camp-badges-54217 | archive-date = 2020-07-03 | quote = The similarity to Nazi symbols is not a coincidence, however, with PR consultant Len Stein saying the new effort “sought to co-opt the notorious system of Nazi camp badges by using their coloured triangles”. }}</ref><ref name="printmag 17 March 2017" >{{cite web | date = 17 March 2017 | last1 = Heller | first1 = Steven | title = United States of Resistance - Print Magazine | url = http://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/united-states-resistance/ | website = www.printmag.com | archive-url = https://archive.today/20170322132915/http://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/united-states-resistance/ | archive-date = 2017-03-22 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.dezeen.com/2017/03/21/tucker-viemeister-r-resistance-symbol-nazi-concentration-camp-badges-design-graphics/ |title=Tucker Viemeister bases R for Resistance symbol on Nazi concentration camp badges |last=Morby |first=Alie |date=21 March 2017 |website=Dezeen |access-date=February 25, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170321150200/https://www.dezeen.com/2017/03/21/tucker-viemeister-r-resistance-symbol-nazi-concentration-camp-badges-design-graphics/ |archive-date=March 21, 2017}}</ref><ref> Linked in the news article: {{cite web |title = R4Resist | date = March 2017 | url = https://r4resist.wordpress.com/ | archive-url = https://archive.today/20260118075720/https://r4resist.wordpress.com/ | archive-date = 2026-01-18 | via = www.dezeen.com}}</ref>

In April 2017 Trump "vowed" to "combat antisemitism".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/2017/04/25/525574792/at-holocaust-remembrance-ceremony-trump-vows-to-confront-anti-semitism |title=At Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony, Trump Vows To Confront Anti-Semitism |date=April 25, 2017 |website=NPR |access-date=February 25, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170501175325/https://www.npr.org/2017/04/25/525574792/at-holocaust-remembrance-ceremony-trump-vows-to-confront-anti-semitism |archive-date=May 1, 2017}}</ref>

File:LGBT Solidarity Rally (32714617385).jpg | Protest against Trump in February 2017 in front of the Stonewall Inn

File:Trump inauguration protest SF Jan 20 2017 08.jpg | Pink triangle on a protest banner calling Trump a fascist, in San Francisco in 2017

</gallery>

==== 2020 Trump campaign ==== {{further |Donald Trump 2020 presidential campaign #June 2020 |Trump 2020 #Political positions |Antifa USA }}

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.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Breland|first=Ali|title=Nazis put this symbol on political opponents' arms. Now Trump is using it.|url=https://www.motherjones.com/2020-elections/2020/06/trump-upside-down-triangle-antifa/|access-date=2020-06-19|website=Mother Jones|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Morrison|first=Sara|date=2020-06-18|title=Facebook takes down another Trump campaign ad, this time for Nazi imagery|url=https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/6/18/21295226/facebook-trump-campaign-nazi-symbol-antifa|access-date=2020-06-19|website=Vox|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Rodrigo|first=Chris Mills|date=2020-06-18|title=Facebook takes down Trump ads featuring symbol used by Nazis to mark political prisoners|url=https://thehill.com/policy/technology/503421-facebook-takes-down-trump-ads-featuring-symbol-used-by-nazis-to-mark|access-date=2020-06-19 | newspaper = The Hill (newspaper)}}</ref>

As an example of the public outcry against the use of the downward-pointing red triangle, as reported by MotherJones, the Twitter account (@jewishaction),<ref>{{Cite Twitter profile|jewishaction}}</ref> the account of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bendthearc.us/ |title=Home |website=Bend the Arc}}</ref> a Progressive Jewish site stated:<blockquote> "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"<ref>{{Cite web|last=Breland|first=Ali|title=Nazis put this symbol on political opponents' arms. Now Trump is using it.|url=https://www.motherjones.com/2020-elections/2020/06/trump-upside-down-triangle-antifa/|access-date=2021-12-22|website=Mother Jones|language=en-US}}</ref></blockquote>Facebook removed the campaign ads with the graphic, saying that its use in this context violated their policy against "organised hate".<ref>{{Cite web|last=Shannon|first=Joel|title=Nazis used red triangles to mark political prisoners. That symbol is why Facebook banned a Donald Trump reelection campaign ad.|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/18/nazis-used-red-triangles-they-symbol-organized-hate/3217951001/|access-date=2021-12-22|website=USA Today |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newsweek.com/history-red-triangle-used-concentration-camps-team-trump-facebook-ad-1511897|first=James|last=Crowley|title=The History of The Concentration Camp Badge in a Team Trump Ad For Facebook|website=Newsweek|date=18 June 2020|access-date=16 December 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://forward.com/fast-forward/449073/trump-antifa-nazi-concentration-camp/|title=Facebook removes Trump ad that identifies Antifa with red triangle similar to Nazi symbol|first=Ari|last=Feldman|website=The Forward|date=18 June 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dailydot.com/debug/trump-ad-nazi-symbol/|first=Claire|last=Goforth|title=Trump campaign accused of using a Nazi symbol in Facebook ad|date=27 January 2021|website=The Daily Dot|access-date=16 December 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Facebook removes Trump ads for violating 'organized hate' policy|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/facebook-removes-trump-ads-violating-organized-hate-policy-n1231468|access-date=2020-06-18|publisher=NBC News|date=18 June 2020 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="washington">{{Cite news|last=Stanley-Becker|first=Isaac|title=Facebook removes Trump ads with symbol once used by Nazis to designate political prisoners|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/18/trump-campaign-runs-ads-with-marking-once-used-by-nazis-designate-political-prisoners/|access-date=February 26, 2026|newspaper=The Washington Post|language=en|url-access=limited |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200629101620/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/18/trump-campaign-runs-ads-with-marking-once-used-by-nazis-designate-political-prisoners/ |archive-date=June 29, 2020}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Karni|first=Annie|date=June 18, 2020|title=Facebook removes Trump ads displaying symbol used by Nazis|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/us/politics/facebook-trump-ads-antifa-red-triangle.html|website=The New York Times|url-access=limited}}</ref>

=== Controversial uses of yellow stars === [[File:A man taunts Assembly Member Forrest Dunbar, who is Jewish, with a yellow Star of David at the September 29, 2021 Anchorage Assembly meeting.jpg |thumb|360px| 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.

</gallery>{{clear}}

=== Gaza war protests and military media === [[File: Latuff nazi camp 2.png |thumb|240px| Political cartoon by Carlos Latuff ]] {{main | Gaza war protests | Gaza war }}{{anchor| Israel–Hamas war | Hamas red triangle|Gaza war}}

==== Before 2023 ====

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).{{efn|name=StarPin}}

A political cartoon by Brazilian artist Carlos Latuff depicted a Palestinian man behind the West Bank barrier in the striped uniform of a Nazi concentration camp, with a red crescent in place of the red inverted triangle worn by political prisoners, or red and yellow star worn by Jewish political prisoners. In 2006 a Latuff's cartoon won second prize in the 2006 International Holocaust Cartoon Competition in Iran.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Delegitimizing Jews and Israel in Iran's International Holocause Cartoon Contest |last=Jaspal |first=Rusi |journal=Journal of Modern Jewish Studies |volume=13 |date=2014 |doi=10.1080/14725886.2014.919804 |pages=167-189}}</ref> The competition in Iran was started as retaliation for Western cartoonists' depictions of the Prophet Muhammed and associated claims of "free speech", by choosing the topic Western audiences would find most offensive.<ref>{{cite news| title = Holocaust Cartoon Contest In Iran - CBS News | url = https://www.cbsnews.com/news/holocaust-cartoon-contest-in-iran/ | work = www.cbsnews.com | date = 7 February 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20250921023501/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/holocaust-cartoon-contest-in-iran/ | archive-date = 2025-09-21 | quote = 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.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title = Australian in Iran cartoon 'hoax' | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4711504.stm | date = 14 February 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070110225810/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4711504.stm | archive-date = 2007-01-10 | quote = Iran's competition was launched in response to the publication in Europe of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.}}</ref>

==== Yellow stars during the Gaza war ==== {{See also|Do you condemn Hamas?|Hamas genocide against Israelis|Weaponization of antisemitism}}

In late December 2023, Gilad Erdan, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, provoked controversy by wearing a yellow star at the assembly.<ref>{{cite news |title=Erdan wears yellow Star of David 'until UN condemns Hamas atrocities' |url=https://www.israelhayom.com/2023/10/31/erdan-puts-on-yellow-star-of-david-until-un-security-council-condemns-the-atrocities-of-hamas/ |date=31 October 2023 |website=Israel Hayom |access-date=February 26, 2026}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |title=Why did Israel's envoy wear a Nazi-era yellow star while addressing a UN meeting | url = https://www.livemint.com/news/world/why-did-israels-envoy-gilad-erdan-wear-a-nazi-era-yellow-star-while-addressing-a-un-meeting-on-the-israel-hamas-war-11698726314555.html | website = livemint.com | date = 31 October 2023}}</ref> The analogy was controversial.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/the-masterful-propaganda-of-deadliest-day-for-jews-since-the-holocaust/|title=The masterful propaganda of ‘deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust’|first=Tom|last=Suarez|date=26 November 2023|website=Mondoweiss}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable (WP:MONDOWEISS).|date=February 2026}} 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".<ref>{{cite news | date = 31 October 2023 | title = Israel UN envoy draws criticism for donning yellow star | url = https://www.dw.com/en/israel-un-envoy-draws-criticism-for-donning-yellow-star/a-67263811 | website = www.dw.com | location = Germany | archive-url = https://archive.today/20231031181735/https://www.dw.com/en/israel-un-envoy-draws-criticism-for-donning-yellow-star/a-67263811 | archive-date = 2023-10-31 | quote = 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." }}</ref>

==== Red triangles during the Gaza war ==== {{see also|Red triangle (anti-fascist symbol)|Red triangle (Palestinian symbol)|Holocaust inversion|Palestinian propaganda}}

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.<ref>{{cite web | date = 19 October 2023 | author = Vicente Herrero Carreter | title = 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 | trans-title = 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 | website = cadenaser.com Cadena SER | url = https://cadenaser.com/castillayleon/2023/10/19/iu-y-podemos-se-manifestaran-en-aranda-de-duero-contra-el-genocidio-de-gaza-radio-aranda/ | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20260118035031/https://cadenaser.com/castillayleon/2023/10/19/iu-y-podemos-se-manifestaran-en-aranda-de-duero-contra-el-genocidio-de-gaza-radio-aranda/ | archive-date = 2026-01-18 | quote = 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. | trans-quote = 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. | language = ca, es }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.elconfidencial.com/cultura/2020-01-15/antifascismo-triangulo-rojo-pablo-iglesias-alberto-garzon_2412264/|title=El reverso tenebroso del triángulo rojo comunista de Pablo Iglesias y Alberto Garzón|first=Julio Martín|last=Alarcón}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable (WP:NOTRS).|date=February 2026}}

Some sources{{Which|date=January 2026}} have suggested that the inverted red triangle symbol used by Hamas in its propaganda videos is reminiscent of the same red triangle used by the Nazis, with regards to antisemitism during the Gaza war.<ref name="shaked" /><ref name="commentary">{{cite web |url=https://www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/hamass-fitting-embrace-of-a-nazi-symbol/ |title=Hamas's fitting embrace of a Nazi Symbol |last=Mandel |first=Seth |date=September 17, 2024 |website=Commentary |access-date=February 25, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240917195123/https://www.commentary.org/john-podhoretz/apologia-for-assassinations/ |archive-date=September 17, 2024}}</ref> However, the Nazis used the inverted red triangle to identify prisoners with political views opposed to Nazism, not necessarily Jewish prisoners.<ref>{{Cite web |date=4 June 2024 |title=What does the inverted red triangle used by some pro-Palestinian demonstrators symbolize? |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/gaza-red-triangle-meaning-1.7216788 |publisher=CBC}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Markoe |first=Lauren |date=2024-06-13 |title=Vandals painted a red triangle on the home of a Jewish museum director. What does it mean? |url=https://forward.com/fast-forward/622549/red-triangle-inverted-hamas-symbol-brooklyn/ |access-date=2024-07-29 |website=The Forward |language=en}}</ref> The red inverted triangle was first used in the 1930s to mark German communists and Social Democrats, then during WWII the inverted red triangle was used to mark people who resisted the Nazi occupation of their countries by Nazi Germany.{{sfnq| Gregson |2024| q = 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.}} However, news media suggested the symbol used in Palestinian propaganda independently originated from the red section on the Palestinian flag.{{sfnq| Gregson |2024| q = A red triangle — though not inverted — also appears, however, in the Palestinian flag, which derives from a 1916 pan-nationalist design.}}

=== Images of memorials and other post-war use === <gallery class="center" widths="180" heights="180" caption="Some examples of camp triangle emblems on monuments and related uses"> File:Todesmarsch Gedenkstein Breitenfeld.JPG|A Dora ''Todesmarsch'' (death march) roadside tablet marked only with the date and a red triangle File:Crawinkel Gedenktafel.JPG|On a Buchenwald ''Todesmarsch'' (death march) route historical marker File:Death March Memorial Plaque, Oranienburg.jpg|On a Sachsenhausen death march route historical marker File:Belower-Damm-Wittstock-Dosse-Mahnmal.jpg|Monument (in the village of Grabow-Below) for Ravensbrück death march victims File:Denkmal KZ Woebbelin4.jpg|On a Wöbbelin memorial stone File:Gedenkstätte Lindenring (2).jpg|Boulder (in Lindenring) for 2,000 women victims of Ravensbrück File:Cenoteph of Cap Arcona.JPG|On a ''Cap Arcona'' incident memorial File:Neustadt-Glewe VVN-Denkmal 2008-01-03.jpg|At the Neustadt-Glewe concentration camp memorial File:French monument Mauthausen 1243.JPG|F-triangle at Mauthausen-Gusen honors French victims File:Han Seelhorst Mahnmal KZ Opfer 01.PNG|On a monument to Neuengamme victims in Hamburg{{efn|name=KZ| the letters KZ are not nationality-letters, but rather are the German abbreviation for ''Konzentrationslager'' (concentration camp)}} File:Ludwigsfelde Friedhof Gedenkstein Widerstandskämpfer.JPG | Memorial to victims killed at Genshagen{{efn|name=KZ}} File:Denkmal für die Opfer der NS-Konzentrationslager Zgorzelec.JPG|P-triangle at a Zgorzelec memorial File:Memorial_to_the_French_victims_of_Dachau_Concentration_Camp_at_Pere_Lachaise_Cemetery_in_Paris.jpg | Memorial to French victims of Dachau in Paris.{{efn| at Père Lachaise Cemetery }} File:Zittau Ehrenmal für die Opfer des Faschismus (9899).jpg | Triangle on the memorial to forced labor deaths at the truck factory in Zittau File:Pink triangle on Twin Peaks (19055079410).jpg|Every year, a pink triangle is erected on Twin Peaks in San Francisco during Pride weekend. </gallery>

== Summary table of camp inmate markings == {|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; font-size: 75%;" ! width="12%" | Prisoner category | width="12%" | {{lang|de|Politisch}} <br /> (political prisoner) | width="12%" | {{lang|de|Berufsverbrecher}} (professional criminal) | width="12%" | {{lang|de|Emigrant}} (foreign forced laborer) | width="12%" | {{lang|de|Bibelforscher}} Bible Student (Jehovah's Witnesses) | width="12%" | {{lang|de|Homosexuell}} (homosexual male or sex offender) | width="12%" | {{lang|de|"Arbeitsscheu"}} (work{{nbh}}shy) or {{lang|de|"Asozial"}} (asocial) | width="12%" | {{lang|de|Zigeuner}} ("Gypsy") Roma or Sinti male {{cn| reason = just male? |date=February 2025}} |- ! Colours | Red | Green | Blue | Purple | Pink | Black | Brown |- !Triangles |50px |50px |50px |50px |50px |50px |50px |- !Markings for repeaters |50px |50px |50px |50px |50px |50px |50px |- !Inmates of ''Strafkompanie'' (punishment companies) |50px |50px |50px |50px |50px |50px |50px |- !Markings for Jews |50px |50px |50px |50px |50px |50px |50px |- |colspan="8"| |- ! rowspan="2" | Nationality markings | rowspan="2" colspan="2" | 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) |- |50px |50px |50px |50px |50px |- |colspan="8"| |- ! rowspan="2" | Special markings | ''Jüdischer Rassenschänder'' (Jewish race defiler) | ''Rassenschänderin'' (Female race defiler) | Escape suspect | ''Häftlingsnummer'' (Inmate number) | colspan=2 | ''Kennzeichen für Funktionshäftlinge'' (Special inmates' brown armband) | Enemy POW or deserter {{citation needed| reason = appears developing places on Wikipedia and never cited |date=July 2025}} |- |50px |50px |50px |100px |colspan=2|100px |50px |- |colspan="8"| |- !Example |style="text-align:center"|70px |colspan="6"|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. |}

== See also ==

=== Related topics === * {{ill|Committees for the Victims of Fascism|de|OdF-Ausschüsse}} ({{langx|de|OdF-Ausschüsse|link=no}}) * {{annotated link|Dehumanisation}} * Identification of inmates in Nazi concentration camps * {{section link|LGBTQ symbols|Triangle badges of Nazi Germany}} * {{annotated link|German-occupied Europe}} * {{annotated link|Resistance during World War II}} * {{annotated link|Victims of Nazi Germany}}

=== Badge symbols === * {{annotated link|Black triangle (badge)}} * {{annotated link|Brown triangle}} * {{annotated link|P (Nazi symbol)}} * {{annotated link|Pink triangle}} * {{annotated link|Purple triangle}} * {{annotated link|Red triangle (badge)}}

== References ==

=== Notes === {{notelist}} {{reflist|group=notes}}

=== Citations === {{reflist}}

=== Bibliography === * {{Cite book| author1-link=Richard Plant (writer) |first1=Richard |last1=Plant |year=1988 |title=The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals |publisher=Owl Books |isbn=0-8050-0600-1}} * {{cite web |first1=Julie |last1=Gregson |title=Red triangle symbol: Germany debating a ban |url=https://www.dw.com/en/germany-debates-banning-red-triangle-symbol-linked-to-hamas/a-69840776 |publisher=Deutsche Welle |date=4 August 2024}} Interviews and quotes: Jens-Christian Wagner (director of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation); Ralf Michaels (director of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg); and the ''National Federation of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime, Resistance Fighters and Antifascists'' (VVN-BDA). * {{cite web| url=http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-dach-early.htm |website=historyplace |title=Camp badge chart}} * {{cite web| url=http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/eng_captions/54-5.html |website=friends-partners.org |title=Additional camp badge chart}}

== External links == {{Commons category|Nazi concentration camp badges}} * {{cite web | website = encyclopedia.ushmm.org | url = https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/gallery/classification-system-in-nazi-concentration-camps-photographs | publisher = United States Holocaust Memorial Museum | title = Classification system in Nazi concentration camps}} * {{cite web | url = https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/markings.html | title = Stars, triangles and markings | website = www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org | publisher = Jewish Virtual Library }} * {{cite web | website = www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org | publisher = Jewish Virtual Library | url = https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/gaycomp.html |title=Gay Prisoners in Concentration Camps as Compared with Jehovah's Witnesses and Political Prisoners |author1-link=Rüdiger Lautmann |first1=Ruediger |last1=Lautmann}}

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