Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Forced labor badge, yellow with a purple P and a purple border, that would be worn to identify a Polish forced laborer in Nazi Germany. German regulations required the workers to wear the badge with the purple band visible around the P on the right chest to keep them separate from the German populace. During the German occupation of Poland, 1939-1945, many non-Jewish Polish people were sent to Germany as conscript labor for civilian labor details on farms and factories. Workers sometimes volunteered for the forced labor service, but the majority were forcibly recruited and conditions worsened as the war continued. The German work force was depleted by the war and unpaid foreign workers were needed to keep the economy functioning.
- Date
-
use:
approximately 1940-1945
- Geography
-
use:
Germany
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection
- Markings
- front, purple dye : P
Physical Details
- Classification
-
Identifying Artifacts
- Category
-
Badges
- Object Type
-
Forced labor badges (ushmm)
- Physical Description
- Square white cloth badge, printed on the front with a yellow square with a purple border and the letter P in the center, applied to be worn in a diamond orientation. The outer edges are frayed.
- Dimensions
- overall: Height: 2.625 inches (6.668 cm) | Width: 2.000 inches (5.08 cm)
- Materials
- overall : cloth, dye
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The forced labor badge was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005.
- Record last modified:
- 2023-08-24 08:14:50
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn516568
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Contact Us
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The collection consists of World War II era artifacts, documents, and publications.
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