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"They shall defile thy brightness...JeremiahMany of the Symbols which were used in the Dachau Concentration Camp were used throughout the Reich. The "Yellow Star" is the well-known symbol which the Jews were forced to sew to their clothing to demarcate their religious/racial status to the Nazis, for the purposes of cruel treatment and 'punishment' [usually, no crime had been committed] There were many persons in European and German Society which the Third Reich held as "offenders". These categories include racial offenders, (Jews, Roma & Sinti, etc) Religious Offenders: prisoners of conscience, including: Christians, Jehovah's Witnesses a few Catholic Priests, and those who were deemed as part of "political protestantism" and political catholicism,1 including those who actively arranged for or hid Jewish persons from the Nazis; Political Prisoners: those arrested by the Reich for anti-Reich activities [these were often also religious objectors, but included such as Soviet soldiers as well.] Illegal Emigrants: not those entering the country illegally so much as those intending to escape the Nazi terror without proper authority; Sexual Offenders: homosexuals, pedophiles, those with other perversions; and other societal misfits that the Reich deemed "incorrigible". The badge system, the example of which above comes from the Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany was fairly consistent across camps. Differing badges immediately alerted Nazi Guards as to the degree of punishment 'allowable' or 'acceptable' often under the misnomer of 'acceptable force'.21 Boelke,The Secret Conferences of Josef Goebbels 2The Interrogation of Eichmann: Israeli Police Archives 3Germany: The Homefront : Time-LIfe Books, Alexandria. © Elizabeth Kirkley Best, PhD; Shoah Education Project:(WEB) All Rights Reserved |