# Concentration camp symbols? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 22, 2000, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concentration-camp-symbols/30320 "2000-08-22T16:09:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tdonald](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6de8d8/32.png) [@tdonald](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdonald)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2000, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concentration-camp-symbols/30320/1 "2000-08-22T16:09:42Z")
Okay, everybody knows that the Nazis forced Jewish people wear yellow stars-of-David and that gays had to wear pink triangles. My question: were Gypsies (Romany), handicapped folks and political prisoners also forced to wear symbols and if so, what? just curious, TD ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2000, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concentration-camp-symbols/30320/2 "2000-08-22T17:01:29Z")
I’ve seen a chart of these symbols somewhere. Yes, everyone wore some sort of symbol, and for everyone but the Jewish prisoners it was a triangle. Pink for gay men, black for “sex criminals” (which included lesbians), red for communists, and so on. I don’t remember them all. ---
**Author:** ![Rodd\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2000, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concentration-camp-symbols/30320/3 "2000-08-22T17:05:04Z")
I’m not sure if the Romany people had a specific colour triangle. There was quite a complicated system of symbols (not surprising, given the Nazi love of uniforms and insignia for everyone, from tram conductors, to the unfortunates in the camps). Here’s a link which shows what is apparently an original poster from a KZ. I note that the caption says that Jehovah’s Witnesses had their own colour. [KZ prisoner symbols](http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-dach-early.htm) There appear to be further symbols for prisoners who worked in the camps (Kapo, etc.) I was quite careful when choosing the page to link–you turn up a great deal of disinformation and hatred when you search for info on the holocaust on the web. Some very sad and crazy people out there… ---
**Author:** ![Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milton_De_La_Warre)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2000, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concentration-camp-symbols/30320/4 "2000-08-22T17:11:57Z")
Rodd Hill: By way of information, is it possible for you to list the column and row headings in the diagram? I can’t make them out sufficiently to read them. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2000, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concentration-camp-symbols/30320/5 "2000-08-22T17:17:58Z")
This site has the same chart that you can see at **Rodd Hill** ’s link, but there is a legend explaining the various colours. [Badges of the Holocaust](http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/badges.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Rodd\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2000, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concentration-camp-symbols/30320/6 "2000-08-22T17:23:27Z")
**JCHeckler** : I’ve been trying to find a better image of the poster, either with greater resolution or simply a larger size: so far, no luck. It doesn’t help matters that the typeface used is the old “fractur,” which is difficult enough for a non-German speaker at the best of times! I’ll keep looking. To refer back to the OP, I should have clarified that AFAIK, the Jews were the only group forced to wear distinguishing insignia **before** arrival in a concentration camp. I have seen yellow stars with the word “Jew” in French, Polish, and German. The coloured triangles were, I believe, not worn by other groups (homosexuals, 7th Day Adventists, political prisoners, etc.) until actually in a concentration camp. (Just previewed–thanks **Arnold**.) ---
**Author:** ![sleepee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7bcc69/32.png) [@sleepee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleepee)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2000, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concentration-camp-symbols/30320/7 "2000-08-22T18:53:14Z")
YES, I have a book written by a Polish guy who survived the war and was a camp prisoner, I will get the book and try to find the symbols. ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2000, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concentration-camp-symbols/30320/8 "2000-08-22T19:13:00Z")
And, of course, it wasn’t just symbols that were used for identity purposes once people were in the camps. First time I saw this was on an elderly man serving at a gift shop on a Greek Island, think i was about 9 years old. Didn’t put two and two together so I pointed at the tattood number on his lower arm and asked “Whats that ?”. He said “Auschwitz”. Gulp - all those war films that kids love to watch suddenly had a context ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2000, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concentration-camp-symbols/30320/9 "2000-08-22T22:58:44Z")
I saw those posters (or very similar ones) at the [Holocaust Museum](http://www.ushmm.com/). You may want to poke around their website and see what you can find. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2000, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concentration-camp-symbols/30320/10 "2000-08-23T01:31:24Z")
One of my aunt’s dearest friends is a Holocaust survivor. I met him a couple summers ago. Before he came by, I asked my aunt if he had a number on his arm, and she said yes. I was soooo embarassed when she asked him to show it to me, but he was VERY cool about it, and very talkative. (He’s such a nice guy!) ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2000, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concentration-camp-symbols/30320/11 "2000-08-23T02:38:09Z")
It was my understanding that there were 6 inverted-triangle symbols. My friend M. likes to joke that he would have gotten all 6 triangles (he’s a gay apostate-Jewish Gypsy socialist who’s committed a crime and been in a mental hospital). He quips that he wouldn’t have died in the Holocaust because they would have spent the whole war pinning triangles on him. (He’s a Scorpio rising. He’s allowed to joke like that.) ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2000, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concentration-camp-symbols/30320/12 "2000-08-23T16:04:04Z")
When I visited Matthausen KZ there was a very complicated badge chart, and I remember that there was a specific Romany badge (I didn’t previously know the German word Zigeuner and it stuck in my head particularly). ---
**Author:** ![Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milton_De_La_Warre)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2000, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concentration-camp-symbols/30320/13 "2000-08-23T16:04:06Z")
One thing in the Rodd Hill Posted chart that I found interesting: “. The vertical categories begin with the basic colors, and then show those for repeat offenders…”. Repeat offenders? They didn’t parole people from those hell-holes, did they? I thought once you went in, you didn’t go out alive.