The red triangle, also described as the red wedge, has been a left-wing political symbol for over a century.
On Labor Day in 1890 in France workers wore a red triangle as a symbol of the eight-hour working day they were fighting for, with the three points representing 8 hours of work, 8 hours of rest, and 8 hours of leisure.[8][9] It is still used with this meaning in some parts of Europe, in conjunction with Labour Day celebrations on 8 May.[10]
Numerous modern left-wing groups and publications have used symbols that reference the red wedge, or the reclamation or the red triangle badge that the Nazis used to mark their political opponents, or both.[6]
The black flag used by modern anti-fascists (Antifa) also refers back to the era of the Russian Revolution.[13]
The El Lissitzky poster was the namesake of the 1980s British left-wing musical collective Red Wedge, they opposed British conservatives but did not describe themselves as communist.[14][15][16]
Red triangles and number (28320) on Dachau clothing at a museum exhibit (photo by Adam Jones).
The colour of the symbol comes from the party colours of the Communist Party of Germany, one of the first groups to be detained in the Nazi concentration camps.[1]
As depicted in the famous poem that begins, "First they came for the Communists".[17][18]
In a 2024 article about the origins of the red triangle symbol, Germany's public broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported, "At first, the majority of political inmates were German Social Democrats or Communists and the red of the triangle referred to their party colors.. most were non-Germans from across the political spectrum who had opposed National Socialism or Nazi Germany's occupation of their countries".[1]
The red triangle badge in Nazi concentration camps
Left and middle: F on red triangle on Buchenwald clothing of Dr. Joseph Brau [fr] (photo by Dominique Brau)
A red inverted triangle was worn by political prisoners in Nazi concentration camps.[19][3][5]
The red triangle was only used for Jewish prisoners in unusual circumstances, such as when the Nazi authorities in the prison were unaware that the prisoner was Jewish.[20]
German communists were among the first to be imprisoned in concentration camps.[21][22] Their ties to the USSR concerned Hitler, and the Nazi Party was intractably opposed to communism. Rumors of communist violence were spread by the Nazis to justify the Enabling Act of 1933, which gave Hitler his first dictatorial powers. Hermann Göring testified at Nuremberg that Nazi willingness to repress German Communists prompted Hindenburg and the old elite to cooperate with them. Hitler and the Nazis also despised German leftists because of their resistance to Nazi racism. Hitler referred to Marxism and "Bolshevism" as means for "the international Jew" to undermine "racial purity", stir up class tension and mobilise trade unions against the government and business. When the Nazis occupied a territory, communists, socialists and anarchists were usually among the first to be repressed; this included summary executions. An example is Hitler's Commissar Order, in which he demanded the summary execution of all Soviet troops who were political commissars who offered resistance or were captured in battle.[23][verification needed]
Later this expanded and many political detainees were German and foreign civilian activists from across the political spectrum who opposed the Nazi regime, captured resistances fighters (many of whom were executed during—or immediately after—their interrogation, particularly in occupied Poland and France) and, sometimes, their families. German political prisoners were a substantial proportion of the first inmates at Dachau (the prototypical Nazi concentration camp). The political People's Court was notorious for the number of its death sentences.[25][26]
Since the end of World War II the red triangle has been used as an anti-fascist symbol.[6]
The pink triangle and red triangle were both reclaimed after the war as symbols of prid and remembrance.[1]
Association of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime – Federation of Antifascists
With the end of World War II, self-help groups of former resistance fighters were founded in "anti-fascist committees", known as "Antifas", involving working class militants, in particular but not only Communists[27][28][29][30] which were banned immediately by the military administrations of each of the British and American occupation zones for being far politically left.[31][32]
By June 26, 1945, an "association of political prisoners and persecutees of the Nazi system" had been founded in Stuttgart, and in the following weeks and months, there were regional groups of ex-political prisoners and other persecuted individuals formed with the permission of the allied forces, in each of the four occupation zones.[33]
The group are critical of far-right politicians in Germany and abroad.
In 2025, the group claimed that, "The weakening of universities has long been a declared goal of the US right".[34]
From 1975 onwards, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR, also known as East Germany) released a medal for the "Committee of Antifascist Resistance Fighters" (KdAW, German: Komitee der Antifaschistischen Widerstandskämpfer) of the GDR that included a red triangle.[35]
The Committee of Antifascist Resistance Fighters (KdAW) was formed in 1953. Practically speaking, it functioned as the East German counterpart of the Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime (Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes). The KdAW enjoyed a close relationship with the Socialist Unity Party, although it was not a member of the National Front.[verification needed] The organisation played an important role in the commemoration of German resistance to Nazism and The Holocaust in East Germany.[36] East Germany utilised such commemorative functions to emphasise the anti-fascist orientation of the state.[37]
Membership in the KdAW served as a means of accessing benefits. For instance, membership made one eligible to receive the Medal for Fighters Against Fascism.[38]
It also contained a number of working groups, which brought people with similar backgrounds together. The most prominent of these were groups for survivors of various concentration camps and prisons; for example one existed for former prisoners of Brandenburg-Görden Prison. Another working group was formed for veterans of the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War.[39]
The Political Prisoner's Cross 1940–1945 (French: Croix du Prisonnier Politique 1940–1945, Dutch: Politieke Gevangenkruis 1940–1945) was a Belgian war medal established by royal decree of the Regent on 13 November 1947 and awarded to Belgian citizens arrested and interned by the Germans as political prisoners during the Second World War. The award's statute included provisions for posthumous award should the intended recipient not survive detention, and the right of the widow, the mother or the father of the deceased to wear the cross.[40]
Various anti-fascist and left wing groups in Europe have used red triangles referencing the reclaimed political prisoners' symbol or the Soviet red wedge. In the United Kingdom in the 1980s Anti-Fascist Action sometimes used the symbol.[12][44] For example, they produced a badge that showed a red triangle / red wedge symbol aggressively attacking a black swastika and smashing it.[12]
In the dandruff era, the Red Wedge we a left wing pop group in the UK who took their name from the soviet poster.[45]
In 2020, Donald Trump's presidential re-election campaign attracted controversy by using the symbol in social media adversisements attacking his own far-left opponents, whom he described as "Antifa". Facebook banned the ad on the basis of the historical use by the Nazi Party in their persecution of their political opponents.[7]
A spokesperson for the campaign claimed it was not a hate symbol on the basis that it was not in the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) database of hate symbols. ADL's CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, pointed out the database only included symbols used in the United States, not historical or foreign symbols.[7]
"Gigafact" published a fact check with the question "Does Antifa commonly use an inverted red triangle symbol once used by Nazis?" and their headline answer was "NO", but they did point out that the red triangle has been used by some European anti-fascist groups.[44]
International Women's Day, meeting at the Ravensbrück monument in Amsterdam; women with symbols of all persecuted groups.[46]
Lapel pins of the red triangle are widely distributed in Belgium and Spain, and other European countries.[47][48][49]
Left-wing French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon wore a red triangle lapel pin during his campaign, the message was particularly aimed at diffentiating himself from far-right National Front candidate Marine Le Pen.[47]
Jean-Luc Mélenchon explained the meaning, "I have been compared to the National Front. I was outraged. I said to myself, what could I wear? And someone, a Belgian, a comrade, said to me, 'Listen, I'll give you mine, it's the insignia of the communist deportees in the Nazi concentration camps'. And so I said: 'now I'm putting it on, I'm not taking it off' … We forget this moment in history. But the first to be deported and massacred were the communists…" [47]
Anti-Fascist Action in the United Kingdom used the symbol in badges in the 80s, the most eutectic example showed the pointed red shape smashing a black swastika.[12]
Kunstverein Roter Keil [de] (Red Wedge art and culture association) say their name is a coincidence.
The Russian artist Sergei Bugaev produced an "Anti-Lissitzky" series at the end of the Cold War, between 1991 and 1995, which included several derivative works based on "Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge".[57]
The red triangle outline used by the YMCA. It is part of the "Y" in their usual logo, but was also used by itself on a badge for "Red Triangle Day" in about 1917.[60]
Identification in Nazi camps – Prisoners' camp identification numbers, cloth emblems, and armbandsPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
^ ab"Classification System in Nazi Concentration Camps". Holocaust Encyclopedia. ushmm.org. Jewish prisoners were identified by a yellow star. If they were imprisoned for another reason, a triangle of the appropriate colour was added to their badge. Therefore, if a Jewish prisoner was also considered a political opponent, a red triangle was sewn over the yellow triangle. Criminals were marked with green inverted triangles, political prisoners with red, "asocials" (including Roma, nonconformists, vagrants, and other groups) with black or — in the case of Roma in some camps — brown triangles. Gay men and men accused of homosexuality were identified with pink triangles. And Jehovah's Witnesses were identified with purple ones … The two triangles forming the Jewish star badge would both be yellow unless the Jewish prisoner was included in one of the other prisoner categories. A Jewish political prisoner, for example, would be identified with a yellow triangle beneath a red triangle.
^ ab"Identification Badges in the Holocaust"(PDF). hcofpgh.org. Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. Political prisoners: social democrats, socialists, trade unionists, communists and anarchists
^ abcdeSilver, Steve (16 August 2024). "Berlin and the red triangle". Searchlight. It wasn't only in Germany that the red triangle was an anti-fascist symbol. It was also an anti-fascist symbol in Britain. Anti-Fascist Action used the symbol in the 1980s with the red triangle piercing a swastika (right).
^ abcAllyn, Bobby (18 June 2020). "Facebook Removes Trump Ads With Symbol Used By Nazis. Campaign Calls It An 'Emoji'". NPR. Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said that some products are sold online that use the inverted red triangle in antifa imagery … The (Trump) campaign also said that the symbol is not in the Anti-Defamation League Hate Symbols Database … Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, pointed out that the database is not a collection of historical Nazi imagery. "It's a database of symbols commonly used by modern extremist groups and white supremacists in the United States", he said.
^Lefèvre, Jonathan (31 July 2019). "Rode Driehoek: de arbeidersstrijd en het antifascistisch symbool" [Red Triangle: the workers' struggle and the anti-fascist symbol]. Solidair (in Flemish). Archived from the original on 23 September 2020. De voorbije weken haalden heel wat mensen een rode driehoek boven om hun afkeer voor extreemrechts te tonen. De rode driehoek is het symbool van het antifascisme sinds de nazi's hun politieke gevangenen in de kampen dwongen dit te dragen. Maar het symbool dateert van veel vroeger … Op 1 Mei van 1890 dragen linkse militanten een rode driehoek. De Gazette de Liège van 25 april 1890 (de krant van katholiek reactionair rechts): "1 Mei. Tienduizend affiches zullen worden uitgehangen in Parijs. Ze worden gedrukt op rood papier. Bovenaan staat: Feest van de Arbeid. Een delegatie zal de petitie van de syndicale kamers en van de socialistische fracties van Frankrijk op die 1 mei bij de Kamer van Volksvertegenwoordigers indienen. De delegatie vertrekt op de Place de la Concorde om 2 u in de namiddag. Het insigne dat de manifestanten zullen dragen is een lederen rode driehoek, waarbinnen deze inscriptie staat: '1 Mei, 8 uren arbeid'.1 De eerste hoek staat voor 8 uur werken, de tweede voor 8 uur ontspanning en de derde voor 8 uur rust. [In recent weeks, many people have pulled out a red triangle to show their dislike for the extreme right. The red triangle has been the symbol of anti-fascism since the Nazis forced their political prisoners in the camps to wear it. But the symbol dates back to much earlier ... On May 1 of 1890, left-wing militants wear a red triangle. The Gazette de Liège of April 25, 1890 (the newspaper of the Catholic reactionary right): "May 1. Ten thousand posters will be hung in Paris. They are printed on red paper. At the top it says: Labor Day. A delegation will submit the petition of the trade union chambers and the socialist groups of France to the Chamber of Deputies on May 1. The delegation leaves the Place de la Concorde at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The insignia that the demonstrators will wear is a leather red triangle, within which is this inscription: '1 May, 8 hours of work'. 1 The first corner represents 8 hours of work, the second 8 hours of relaxation, and the third 8 hours of rest.]
^"May Day: origins and traditions". Accent Francais. The workers marched to demand the eight-hour day. They wore a red triangle in their buttonholes. Its three sides symbolise the division of time between work, leisure and sleep.
^ abcdeSilver, Steve (16 August 2024). "Berlin and the red triangle". Searchlight. It wasn't only in Germany that the red triangle was an anti-fascist symbol. It was also an anti-fascist symbol in Britain. Anti-Fascist Action used the symbol in the 1980s with the red triangle piercing a swastika (right). That particular image harked back to early Soviet propaganda. In 1918 Nikolai Kolli … The avant-garde Russian Jewish artist El Lissitsky echoed that sculpture in his famous "Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge" poster, some arguing that the slogan was chosen to counter the Russian pogromist slogan "Bej zhidov!" ("Beat the Jews").
^"The Mandem Need You: Can Grime4Corbyn succeed where Red Wedge failed?". Crack Magazine. The name Red Wedge was adopted from a lithographic soviet propaganda poster from 1919. The artwork, designed by constructivist artist El Lissitzky, was titled Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge in reference to the Bolshevik faction defeating the anti-communistWhite Movement confederation during the Russian Civil War. The image of a red triangle penetrating a large white circle was also reinterpreted by Bragg and his musical comrades. However, despite the poster's communist ancestry, the 1985 movement insisted it was not a communist organisation.
^"The Mandem Need You: Can Grime4Corbyn succeed where Red Wedge failed?". Crack Magazine. The name Red Wedge was adopted from a lithographic soviet propaganda poster from 1919. The artwork, designed by constructivist artist El Lissitzky, was titled Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge in reference to the Bolshevik faction defeating the anti-communistWhite Movement confederation during the Russian Civil War. The image of a red triangle penetrating a large white circle was also reinterpreted by Bragg and his musical comrades. However, despite the poster's communist ancestry, the 1985 movement insisted it was not a communist organisation.
^"Red triangle symbol: Germany debating a ban – DW – 08/04/2024". dw.com. Deutsche Welle. 4 August 2024. From the mid-1930s, political prisoners were forced to wear cloth badges with the triangle in Nazi concentration camps. It was part of an extensive dehumanizing classification system. 'At first, the majority of political inmates were German Social Democrats or Communists and the red of the triangle referred to their party colors,' Jens-Christian Wagner, the director of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation, told DW. Later, he explained, most were non-Germans from across the political spectrum who had opposed National Socialism or Nazi Germany's occupation of their countries.
^"Testimonies From Auschwitz Reveal a Network of Women Who Saved Lives and Prepared for Rebellion". Haaretz. 15 March 2025. Though this group consisted only of Jewish girls, there was one girl who wore a red triangle on her number, identifying her as a Pole. She was Jewish, but had succeeded in maintaining her false identity as a non-Jew. This girl was either directly involved with the Polish Underground or was close enough to them to have gained their confidence. She used to supply us with current political news… She told us that the Polish Home Army [the largest Polish underground movement] was organizing a revolt in Warsaw…
^"Ein Konzentrationslager für politische Gefangene In der Nähe von Dachau". Münchner Neueste Nachrichten ("The Munich Latest News") (in German). The Holocaust History Project. 21 March 1933. Archived from the original on 6 May 2013. The Munich Chief of Police, Himmler, has issued the following press announcement: On Wednesday the first concentration camp is to be opened in Dachau with an accommodation for 5000 persons. 'All Communists and—where necessary—Reichsbanner and Social Democratic functionaries who endanger state security are to be concentrated here, as in the long run it is not possible to keep individual functionaries in the state prisons without overburdening these prisons, and on the other hand these people cannot be released because attempts have shown that they persist in their efforts to agitate and organise as soon as they are released.'
^"Commissar Order". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 27 September 2015. The Commissar Order read: "The originators of barbaric, Asiatic methods of warfare are the political commissars... Therefore, when captured either in battle or offering resistance, they are to be shot on principle."
^"Classification System in Nazi Concentration Camps". Holocaust Encyclopedia. Among the first victims of persecution in Nazi Germany were political opponents—primarily Communists, Social Democrats, and trade unionists. … From 1938, Jews in the camps were identified by a yellow star sewn onto their prison uniforms, a perversion of the Jewish Star of David symbol. After 1939 and with some variation from camp to camp, the categories of prisoners were easily identified by a marking system combining a colored inverted triangle with lettering. The badges sewn onto prisoner uniforms enabled SS guards to identify the alleged grounds for incarceration. … A chart of prisoner markings used in German concentration camps. Dachau, Germany, ca. 1938–1942. … Beginning in 1937–1938, the SS created a system of marking prisoners in concentration camps. Sewn onto uniforms, the color-coded badges identified the reason for an individual's incarceration, with some variation among camps. The Nazis used this chart illustrating prisoner markings in the Dachau concentration camp.
^Frei, Norbert (1993) National Socialist Rule in Germany: The Führer State 1933-1945 Translated by Simon B. Steyne. Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 147, 212 n.43 ISBN0-631-18507-0
^Information Bulletin, Office of Military Government Control Office, Germany (Territory under Allied occupation, U.S. Zone). Issues 1-22, 1945, pp.13-15
^Pritchard, Gareth (2012). Niemandsland: A History of Unoccupied Germany, 1944-1945. Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-1107013506.
^Michelmann, Jeannette (2002). Aktivisten der ersten Stunde: die Antifa in der Sowjetischen Besatzungszone. Köln: Böhlau. p. 369. ISBN9783412046026.
^Woller, Hans (1986). Gesellschaft und Politik in der amerikanischen Besatzungszone : die Region Ansbach und Fürth (in German). München: Oldenbourg. p. 89. ISBN9783486594751.
^Oppenheimer, Max (1972). Vom Häftlingskomitee zum Bund der Antifaschisten : der Weg der VVN. Bibliothek des Widerstandes (in German). Frankfurt: Röderberg-Verlag. p. 9. OCLC971411934.
^"Statut der "Medaille für Kämpfer gegen den Faschismus 1933-1945" [Statute of the “Medal for Fighters against Fascism 1933-1945”]. Gesetzblatt der DDR [Law Gazette of the German Democratic Republic] (in German). 1: 198. 22 February 1958.
^ ab[full citation needed] Royal Decree of the Regent of 13 November 1947 creating the Croix du Prisonnier Politique 1940–1945 (Report). Belgian Defence Ministry. 13 November 1947.
^"Auschwitz Cross". POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
^https://web.archive.org/web/20250714022448/https://muzea.malopolska.pl/en/objects-list/2894 quote: Instituted by Poland in 1985, the Auschwitz Cross is a decoration awarded to honour survivors of Nazi German concentration camps. Szymon Kluger (1925–2000), the last Jewish resident of Oświęcim, was presented with the Auschwitz Cross on 27 September 1989. Szymon Kluger was one of the Jewish residents of Oświęcim who survived the Holocaust and eventually returned to their hometown.
^ ab"Does Antifa commonly use an inverted red triangle symbol once used by Nazis? NO". gigafact.org. Gigafact. The most common symbol of Antifa, a loose collection of far-left activist groups, is a black and red double flag. Some European anti-fascist groups have used a red triangle in the past, but they appear to have done so to refer to a symbol of violence used originally against leftist political activists. Mark Bray, in The Antifascist Handbook, cites its use by a British anti-fascist group in the 1980s.
^ abStreet, John (September 1988). "Red Wedge: another strange story of pop's politics". Critical Quarterly. 30 (3): 79–91. doi:10.1111/J.1467-8705.1988.TB00323.X.
^ abcBaptiste Legrand (23 February 2017). "Jean-Luc Mélenchon: que symbolise le triangle rouge sur sa veste?" [Jean-Luc Mélenchon: what does the red triangle on his jacket symbolize?]. L'Obs (in French). Archived from the original on 7 July 2018. Il était porté dans les camps nazis par les déportés politiques, comme l'étoile jaune pour les déportés juifs et le triangle rose pour les homosexuels. "C'est l'insigne des déportés communistes", a confirmé Jean-Luc Mélenchon dans une vidéo diffusée en 2011… "Ce sont des Belges qui me l'ont filé. On m'a comparé au Front national. J'ai été outré. Je me suis dit, qu'est-ce que je pourrais mettre ? Et quelqu'un, un Belge, un camarade, m'a dit 'écoute, je te donne le mien, c'est l'insigne des déportés communistes dans les camps de concentration nazis'. Et donc j'ai dit : 'maintenant, je le mets, je ne l'enlève plus' … On oublie ce moment d'histoire. Mais les premiers qui ont été déportés et massacrés, ce sont les communistes, les sociaux-démocrates et les homosexuels. Et après, ils ont ramassé les Tsiganes et les Juifs en paquets." Le pin's en forme de triangle rouge est répandu en Belgique, où il est resté un symbole de la résistance à l'extrême droite. [This triangle is loaded with symbols and Jean-Luc Mélenchon has been wearing it for several years now. It was worn in the Nazi camps by political deportees, like the yellow star for Jewish deportees and the pink triangle for homosexuals. "This is the insignia of communist deportees" Jean-Luc Mélenchon confirmed in a video released in 2011… "It was Belgians who gave it to me. I have been compared to the National Front. I was outraged. I said to myself, what could I wear? And someone, a Belgian, a comrade, said to me, 'Listen, I'll give you mine, it's the insignia of the communist deportees in the Nazi concentration camps'. And so I said: 'now I'm putting it on, I'm not taking it off' … We forget this moment in history. But the first to be deported and massacred were the communists, the social democrats, and the homosexuals. And then they picked up the Gypsies and Jews in bundles." The red triangle pin is widespread in Belgium, where it has remained a symbol of resistance to the far-right.] [verification needed]
^https://www.peopleshistory.com.au/ "People's History of Australia is a podcast and blog looking at Australian history from the perspective of ordinary people fighting together for a better life. While most of the history we get taught focuses on the deeds of the great and powerful, we want to turn this upside down, and amplify those moments when ordinary people across Australia have made history – by coming together, overcoming the barriers and divisions that keep us isolated and atomised, and struggling collectively for justice."
^King, Andrew (2 November 2016). "The Canadian Tire Triangle". Appearing around 1950, the inverted red triangle with a green maple leaf would appear and remain a symbol for the Canadian Tire corporation for 66 years, and will probably continue for many more.
^"Brand Identity". www.kenwood.com. KENWOOD. Archived from the original on 1 September 2025. Retrieved 1 September 2025. Brand Identity: TRIANGLE VALUES: The red triangle is the core part of the logo, representing the three values of KENWOOD Brand" in the image: Advanced, High Quality, Sharpness
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