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Identification
Badges
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What were the identification badges?

 Nazi occupied countries forced citizens to wear identification

badges to prove their religion and citizenship
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Progression of identification
 Before the invasion/takeover of Poland, Nazis forced Jews to display signs
in shops that said "Jewish business"
 About a year later a commandant in the town of Wloclawek enforced every
Jew to wear a yellow triangle on their back
 From their several countries adopted similar badges from yellow
armbands, a yellow button in the form of a Star of David, to a metal tag
inscribed with the letter J.
 Within the concentration camps the Star of David, or a yellow stripe was
sewn onto Jewish prisoners to tell them apart from non-Jewish prisoners.
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Identification in concentration camps

 First prisoners were political opponents,

followed by those who refused to follow
Hitler (known as Jehova's Witnesses)
 Nazis also arrested gay German citizens
 Different colored inverted triangles ranked
prisoners
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Consequences

 The whole purpose of making Jewish people wear the symbol

was to restrict their lives and create a barrier between them and
non-Jews.
 If a Jewish person chose to conceal the symbol, they were
counted as offenders liable to deportation to concentration
camps. This would put them at even greater risk.
 The signs were simply a further effective means as to have the
Germans wipe out the Jewish population.
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Reactions

 Some Jews reacted with dignity as if the sign was a decoration

 Until they realized the danger
 Non-Jews(Eastern Europe) saw this as an opportunity for
removing the Jews from commercial, economic and public life.
 West reactions varied
 The Dutch made many replicas of the badge which were
distributed throughout Holland.
 The Dutch wore it out of solidarity with the Jewish
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The End