Victims and Identification

Numbers Holocaust Victims:

*Blacks: unknown

*Clergy: 2,720

*Disabled: 70,000 – 250,000

*Dwarfs: unknown

*Free Masons: unknown

*‘Gypsies’ (Roma, Sinti, Lalleri): 200,000 – 500,000

*Homosexuals: 10s of thousands

*Jehovah’s Witnesses: 2,500 – 5,000

*Mengele’s Twins: 2,740 (of 3,000)

*Polish: 3+ million

*POWs:

            British and American POWs: 8,300 (of 231,000)

            Russian POWs: 3.3+ million

            Other POWs: unknown

*Resistance Fighters: unknown

*Spanish Republican refugees: 499,163 (of 500,000)

*These groups are represented in individual posts in this blog.

Jews: 5.1 – 6+ million

Ukrainians: 5.5 – 7 million

Russian Civilians: 2+ million

Yugoslavians: 1.5+ million

Communists: figures as high as 1 million +

Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts: unknown

Czechs: unknown

Deportees: unknown

Greeks: unknown

Political Prisoners: unknown

Serbs: unknown

Socialists: unknown

Trade Unionists: unknown

Others: unknown

Concentration Camp Prisoner Identification:

Prisoners in the Concentration Camp system were identified by their category, denoted by a patch worn on their uniform along with their number. These patches are as follows:

Green Triangle: Common criminals (murderers, thieves, etc.)

Black Triangle: ‘Asocials’ (slackers, prostitutes, procurers, etc.)

Red Triangles: Political prisoners

Pink Triangles: Homosexuals

Purple Triangles or Bands: Conscientious objectors and Religious (Jehovah’s Witnesses, Catholics, clergy, pacifists, etc.)

Yellow Star of David crossed by Red Traingle: Jewish

Only the Number: Soviet POWs

Some prisoners had more than one patch for identification, worn at the same time, if he or she fell into multiple categories.

Sources:

Karen Silverstrim, University of Arkansas. Overlooked Millions: Non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust. http://www.ukemonde.com/holocaust/victims.html (accessed April 15, 2011).

The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. History of the Holocaust. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/history.html (accessed April 13, 2011).

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/research/library/faq/details.php?lang=en&topic=30#30 (accessed April 13, 2011).

Lynott, Douglas. "Josef Mengele." Tru.TV. Time/Warner. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/history/mengele/index_1.html (accessed April 13, 2011).

Matalon Lagnado, Lucette, and Sheila Cohn Dekel. Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz. Reprint. New York City: Penguin, 1992.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007178 (accessed April 13, 2011).

Hoss, Rudolph, and Primo Levi. Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz. Edited by Steven Paskuly. Translated by Andrew Pollinger. New York City: Da Capo Press, 1992, page 112.