Yellow badge
Yellow badges, also referred to as Jewish badges, are badges that Jews were ordered to wear in public during periods of the Middle Ages by the ruling Christians and Muslims, and in Nazi Germany. The badges served to mark the wearer as a religious or ethnic outsider, and often served as a badge of shame.
Usage
Islamic world
The practice of wearing special clothing or markings to distinguish Jews and other non-Muslims in Muslim-dominated countries seems to have been introduced in the Umayyad Caliphate by Caliph Umar II in the early 8th century. The practice was reissued and reinforced by Caliph Al-Mutawakkil, subsequently remaining in force for centuries. A genizah document from 1121 gives the following description of decrees issued in Baghdad:Medieval Catholic Europe
In largely Catholic Medieval Europe, Jews and Muslims were required to wear distinguishable clothing in some periods. These measures were not seen as being inconsistent with Sicut Judaeis. Although not the first ecclesiastic requirement for non-Christians to wear distinguishable clothing, the Fourth Council of the Lateran headed by Pope Innocent III ruled in 1215 that Jews and Muslims must wear distinguishable dress. Canon 68 reads, in part:Innocent III had in 1199 confirmed Sicut Judaeis, which was also confirmed by Pope Honorius III in 1216. In 1219, Honorius III issued a dispensation to the Jews of Castile, the largest Jewish population in Europe. Spanish Jews normally wore turbans, which presumably met the requirement to be distinctive. Elsewhere, local laws were introduced to bring the canon into effect. The identifying mark varied from one country to another, and from period to period.
In 1227, the Synod of Narbonne, in canon 3, ruled:
However, these ecclesiastic pronouncements required legal sanctions of a temporal authority. In 1228, James I of Aragon ordered Jews of Aragon to wear the badge; and in 1265, the Siete Partidas, a legal code enacted in Castile by Alfonso X but not implemented until many years later, included a requirement for Jews to wear distinguishing marks. On 19 June 1269, Louis IX of France imposed a fine of ten livres on Jews found in public without a badge. The enforcement of wearing the badge is repeated by local councils, with varying degrees of fines, at Arles 1234 and 1260, Béziers 1246, Albi 1254, Nîmes 1284 and 1365, Avignon 1326 and 1337, Rodez 1336, and Vanves 1368. The "rota" looked like a ring of white or yellow. The shape and colour of the patch also varied, although the colour was usually white or yellow. Married women were often required to wear two bands of blue on their veil or head-scarf.
In 1274, Edward I of England enacted the Statute of Jewry, which also included a requirement:
In German-speaking Europe, a requirement for a badge was less common than the Judenhut or Pileum cornutum. In 1267, in a special session, the Vienna city council required Jews to wear a Judenhut; the badge does not seem to have been worn in Austria. There is a reference to a dispensation from the badge in Erfurt on 16 October 1294, the earliest reference to the badge in Germany.
There were also attempts to enforce the wearing of full-length robes, which in late 14th century Rome were supposed to be red. In Portugal a red star of David was used.
Enforcement of the rules was variable; in Marseilles the magistrates ignored accusations of breaches, and in some places individuals or communities could buy exemption. Cathars who were considered "first time offenders" by the Catholic Church and the Inquisition were also forced to wear yellow badges, albeit in the form of crosses, about their person.
The yellow badge is different from the Jewish hat, a cone-shaped hat, which is seen in many illustrations from before this date, and remained the key distinguishing mark of Jewish dress in the Middle Ages. From the 16th century, the use of the Judenhut declined, but the badge tended to outlast it, surviving into the 18th century in places.
Nazi Germany and Axis Powers
After the German invasion of Poland in 1939 there were initially different local decrees requiring Jews to wear a distinctive sign under the General Government. The sign was a white armband with a blue Star of David on it; in the Warthegau a yellow badge in the form of a Star of David on the left side of the breast and on the back. The requirement to wear the Star of David with the word Jude – inscribed in letters meant to resemble Hebrew writing – was then extended to all Jews over the age of six in the Reich and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and was gradually introduced in other German-occupied areas, where local words were used.One observer reported that the star increased German non-Nazi sympathy for Jews as the impoverished citizens who wore them were, contrary to Nazi propaganda, obviously not the cause of German failure in the east. In the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, government had to ban hat tipping toward Jews and other courtesies that became popular as protests against the German occupation. A whispering campaign that claimed that the action was in response to the United States government requiring German Americans to wear swastikas was unsuccessful.
Timeline
Islamic world
;717–720: Caliph Umar II orders non-Muslims to wear vestimentary distinctions;847–861:Caliph Al-Mutawakkil reinforces and reissues the edict. Christians are required to wear patches. One of the patches was to be worn in front of the breast and the other on the back. They were required to be honey-colored.
;887/888: Aghlabid governor of the Emirate of Sicily orders Jews to wear on their garments and put on their doors a piece of cloth in the form of donkey and to wear yellow belts and special hats.
Medieval and Early Modern Europe
;1215: Fourth Lateran Council headed by Pope Innocent III declares: "Jews and Saracens of both sexes in every Christian province and at all times shall be marked off in the eyes of the public from other peoples through the character of their dress.";1219: Pope Honorius III issues a dispensation to the Jews of Castile. Spanish Jews normally wore turbans in any case, which presumably met the requirement to be distinctive.
;1222: Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton orders English Jews to wear a white band two fingers broad and four fingers long.
;1227: Synod of Narbonne rules: "That Jews may be distinguished from others, we decree and emphatically command that in the center of the breast they shall wear an oval badge, the measure of one finger in width and one half a palm in height."
;1228: James I orders Jews of Aragon to wear the badge.
;1265: The Siete Partidas, a legal code enacted in Castile by Alfonso X but not implemented until many years later, includes a requirement for Jews to wear distinguishing marks.
;1267: In a special session, the Vienna city council forces Jews to wear Pileum cornutum ; the badge does not seem to have been worn in Austria.
;1269, June 19: France. Louis IX of France orders all Jews found in public without a badge to be fined ten livres of silver. The enforcement of wearing the badge is repeated by local councils, with varying degrees of fines, at Arles 1234 and 1260, Béziers 1246, Albi 1254, Nîmes 1284 and 1365, Avignon 1326 and 1337, Rodez 1336, and Vanves 1368.
;1274: The Statute of Jewry in England, enacted by King Edward I, enforces the regulations. "Each Jew, after he is seven years old, shall wear a distinguishing mark on his outer garment, that is to say, in the form of two Tables joined, of yellow felt of the length of six inches and of the breadth of three inches."
;1294, October 16: Erfurt. The earliest mention of the badge in Germany.
;1315–1326: Emir Ismail Abu-I-Walid forces the Jews of Granada to wear the yellow badge.
;1321: Henry II of Castile forces the Jews to wear the yellow badge.
;1415, May 11: Bull of the Antipope Benedict XIII orders the Jews to wear a yellow and red badge, the men on their breast, the women on their forehead.
;1434: Emperor Sigismund reintroduces the badge at Augsburg.
;1528: The Council of Ten of Venice allows the newly arrived famous physician and professor Jacob Mantino ben Samuel to wear the regular black doctors' cap instead of Jewish yellow hat for several months, upon the recommendation of the French and English ambassadors, the papal legate, and other dignitaries numbered among his patients.
;1555: Pope Paul IV decrees, in his Cum nimis absurdum, that the Jews should wear yellow hats.
;1566: King Sigismund II passes a law that required Lithuanian Jews to wear yellow hats and head coverings. The law was abolished twenty years later.
;1710: Frederick William I of Prussia abolished the mandatory Jewish yellow patch in return for a payment of 8,000 thaler each.
Nazi Germany and Axis Powers
1939
;September and October: A number of local German occupational commanders ordered Jewish Poles in their areas to wear an identifying mark under the threat of death. There were no consistent requirements as to its color and shape: it varies from a white armband to a yellow Star of David badge.;23 November: Hans Frank ordered all Jewish Poles above the age of 11 years in German-occupied Poland to wear white armbands with a blue Star of David.
1940
1941
;June 4: Jews in the Independent State of Croatia ordered to wear "Jewish insignia".;July: Jewish Poles in German-occupied Soviet-annexed Poland, Jewish Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians as well as Soviet Jews in German-occupied areas were obliged to wear white armbands or yellow badges.
;August 8: All Romanian Jews were ordered to wear the yellow badge.
;August 13: The yellow badge was the only standardised identifying mark in the German-occupied East; other signs were forbidden.
;September 1: Jewish Germans and Jews with citizenship of annexed states from the age of six years were ordered to wear the yellow badge from September 19 when in public.
;September 5: In Luxembourg, the German occupation authorities introduce the Nuremberg Laws, followed by several other anti-Jewish ordinances including an order for all Jews to wear a yellow star with the word "Jude".
;September 9: Slovakia ordered its Jews to wear yellow badges.
;1941/1942: Romania started to force Jews in newly annexed territories, denied Romanian citizenship, to wear the yellow badge.
badges as required by Nazi authorities.
1942
;March 13: The Gestapo ordered Jewish Germans and Jews with citizenship of annexed states to mark their apartments or houses at the front door with a white badge.;April 29: Jewish Dutch people ordered to wear the yellow badge.
;June 3: Jewish Belgians ordered to wear the yellow badge.
;June 7: Jews in occupied France, covering the northern and western half of the country, were ordered to wear a yellow star by the German authorities.
;August: Under German pressure, Bulgaria ordered its Jewish citizens to wear small yellow buttons, but contravention was not prosecuted.
;November: German forces invaded and occupied the Zone libre, i.e. the south-eastern half of France, but did not enforce the yellow star directive there.