How the Nazis used uniforms to differentiate concentration camp prisoners

This is Part 5 of our educational series on concentration camps. In Part 6, we ask young Germans what it’s like visiting a former concentration camp for the first time.

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[jst]

I read a story about a woman whose job it was to sort the clothes. She would put on rags from the other prisoners & go to work. There she would exchange her clothing & shoes for better stuff & then go back to her place & give the new clothes to the other prisoners . She did this her entire stay so others would have good & warm clothes.
Very brave lady

[BrianHAviation]

I've been to a few different camps trying to understand what they went through. I can't even begin to understand how they felt in these camps but i believe we should never let them be forgotten.

[AloutkaKazawa]

My great-grandfather was a prisoner in KL Buchenwald. I found his documentation in archives and it said he was a political prisoner (after the Warsaw Uprising), but they kept him alive because he was a qualified metalworker. I must say, their archives are amazingly detailed. Pity it documents the oceans of suffering

[cristipratt]

This should be taught in all schools
We must NEVER forget😢

[olililiomart]

Thank you for bringing light to this and not letting this tragedy be forgotten

[robbieanderson]

A registered nurse that I worked with in the 60s and early 70s had been a prisoner in one of the well-known camp. She got tears in her eyes when talking about getting a bag of potatoes for everyone to eat in there and what a treasure it was.. Nothing else, but a potato, but they had been so hungry with nothing to eat…. potatoes were gourmet to them. I can still see her talking about this and the horrible things that they went through. We must never forget.

[obtr]

In high school, we were able to meet 2 camp survivors. It is one of my greatest moments of my life. Feel sad for future generations that will never be able to meet people that actually were there

[DawnBrown-hcty]

Lots of my older ancestors went to concentration camps luckily my grandma didn’t and survived she wrote a book on her life she was 6 when it happened

[rosieE]

I could never understand how anyone could treat anyone else so unfeelingly. Hearts of stone.

[Alecsander]

Before this I only knew of the yellow triangle/star and the pink triangle thank you for sharing this!

[tracycobb]

RIP to all those who perished. You will always be remembered and loved❤😢

[johanpeens]

We should not forget the Anglo Boer war in the 1900 between British and the Boers. Many women and children died in British concentration camps in South Africa during the second Anglo boer war. 24000 women and 3400 children died. If it was not for British English women Emily Hophouse more women and children would have died.

[Jeiskma]

The film ' boy in the strips pajamas ' (slow start ... but....) a movie that really made me go whoa* and has never left my mind.

[joliunj]

I was stationed in west Germany, 1986-88, I went to Dachau

[BrodieTV]

Here’s some more info I found on the meanings of the different color triangles:

Red triangle – political prisoners: social democrats, liberals, socialists, communists, anarchists, gentiles who assisted Jews; trade unionists and Freemasons

Green triangle – convicts and criminals (often working as kapos)

Blue triangle – foreign forced laborers and emigrants.

Purple triangle – primarily Jehovah’s Witnesses (over 99%) as well as members of other small pacifist religious groups.

Pink triangle – primarily homosexual men and those identified as such at the time (e.g., bisexual men, trans women) and sexual offenders as well as pedophiles and zoophiles.

Black triangle – people who were deemed asocial elements (asozial) and work-shy (arbeitsscheu), including Roma and Sinti.

[velkmareltop]

It is also worth noting how the colour you wore could affect treatment by both guards and prisoners. In many cases those who wore pink triangles were persecuted by guards and prisoners alike. these people suffered one of the highest death rates in the camps by category. People charged under 175 were not allowed to access financial aid postwar unlike other survivors

[Cale-kryt]

Makes me so sad to see what people went through 😢

[gingerbread]

Thats actually very interesting, thank you for the information!

[joshr]

Wow, that penciled picture at the end really hit home.

[randilevson]

So amazing that these printed records survived. Thank you for helping these dead souls speak for themselves. Don't forget that prisoners had their numbers tattooed on their arms. This was a way of dehumanizing the prisoners, taking away their names, and turning them into mere numbers. I live in Canada and I have seen the arm tattoos of many people as I was growing up. I always had to fight back tears. I can't begin to imagine the horrors that these brave people endured. Yes, yellow for Jewish people, and pink for gays. NEVER AGAIN.