The brown triangle (Brauner Winkel) was a cloth badge used in the Nazi concentration camp prisoner-classification system. As with other colored triangular badges, its meaning depended on time, place, and administrative practice.
In the early phase of the concentration camp system, prisoner markings were not yet fully standardized and could vary between camps. According to the memoir of former Sachsenhausen prisoner Harry Naujoks, prisoners categorized as âÂÂasocialâ were marked with the brown triangle until 1938.
In the more standardized badge system that became established from the late 1930s onward, prisoners classified as âÂÂasocialâ were generally identified with the black triangle.
The brown triangle was also used in connection with the persecution of Sinti and Roma in the camp system, but the chronology is described differently in institutional sources. Arolsen Archives states that Sinti and Roma in the concentration camps âÂÂinitially wore the black triangle of âÂÂanti-social elements,â but later on they were assigned a brown triangle to identify them as a separate groupâÂÂ. By contrast, the German Historical Museum states that during the mass arrests of June 1938, several hundred Sinti and Roma deported to concentration camps were âÂÂinitially marked with the brown triangle, later with the black triangleâÂÂ.
These differing descriptions reflect the fact that prisoner classification and marking practices were not always uniform across the camp system and changed over time.