Asocial Prisoners

Holocaust Asocial Final.jpg

The black triangles were badges utilized to identify all
prisoners considered unfit for community life by the Nazis.
Most individuals who fell into this group were believed to be
‘asocial’ or ‘work shy’. The Nazis placed the following people
into this category:
• Alcoholics and drug addicts
• Mentally ill and people with disabilities
• Vagabonds, homeless and beggars
• Prostitutes
• Pacists and conscription resisters
• Roma and Sinti (Gypsies)

PACIFISTS AND CONSCRIPTION RESISTERS

Those men who objected to the war or resisted the draft
were considered subversive in Germany, a crime punishable
by death.
Franz Jägerstätter (1907-1943) was executed by guillotine
after maintaining his position against fighting for the Third
Reich, on the grounds that he could not fight for the forces
of the evil side. He is now viewed as the patron saint of
conscientious objectors.

PROSTITUTES

Those deemed prostitutes became the target of
mass-imprisonment. Considered "hereditarily diseased", they
became victims of forced sterilization and "euthanasia". In
various concentration camps female prisoners were forced
to prostitute themselves.

ALCOHOLICS & DRUG ADDICTS

In 1933, under the Law Against Dangerous Habitual
Criminals, alcoholics along with many others deemed
“asocial”, were arrested and sent to concentration camps.
Save for a few confirmed cases, drug addicts were not
maltreated. They did not present any danger and could be
cured.

VAGABONDS & BEGGARS

According to an 1871 law, “vagabonds” were confined to
labor houses. With the Nazis in power, the law became
inflexible and vagabonds were sent to concentration camps.

MENTALLY ILL OR DISABLED

The 1933 law for ‘Prevention of Offspring with Heredity
Defects’ allowed Nazi Doctor’s to forcibly sterilize those they
considered unfit. From 1934 until 1939, about 400,000
German women and men were victims of the Nazi forced
sterilization, because they were believed to have had a
hereditary disease. Many of those having undergone forced
sterilization, especially women, died as a consequence of the
surgical intervention. From 1939 to 1945 those captured in
countries conquered by the Germans, became targeted
victims of the Nazi extermination policy.

ROMA & SINTI

Males were later assigned a brown badge; while females
continued to wear the black triangle, as they were
stereotyped as petty criminals. The triangle incorporated a
"Z" for Zigeuner, meaning Gypsy, placed to the right of the
triangle's point.
During 1942-43 some 6,000 “asocial” prisoners were
exterminated through work programme’s in concentration
camps.

Asocial Prisoners