Жёлтый знак: история и современные проявления дискриминации.

Badge forced to be worn by Jews at various times in history

The yellow badge, also known as yellow patch, Jewish badge or yellow star (Judenstern), was a badge that Jews were ordered to wear by some caliphates during the Middle Ages, some European powers during the Medieval and early modern periods, and Nazi officials in World War II. The badges marked the wearer as a religious or ethnic outsider, often as a badge of shame.

The practice of wearing special clothing or markings to distinguish Jews and other non Muslims (dhimmis) 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 revived and reinforced by the Abbasid caliph al Mutawakkil (847–861), subsequently remaining in force for centuries.

After Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939, there were 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 (German for 'Jew') – inscribed in Faux Hebrew 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 (by a decree issued on 1 September 1941, signed by Reinhard Heydrich) and was gradually introduced in other German occupied areas, where local words were used (e. g. Juif in French, Jood in Dutch). 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 on the Eastern Front. In the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, government had to ban hat tipping towards 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.

In May 2001, the Taliban government in Afghanistan ruled that Hindus in the country must wear a yellow badge, causing international outcry. In May 2021, in response to the anti vaccine movement in the United States, hatWRKS, a hat store in Nashville, Tennessee, sold badges that resembled the yellow stars with the words "Not vaccinated" on them. In response, the Stetson company announced they would no longer sell any hats to the store. This also sparked protests outside the store. The practice of wearing yellow stars in protests against responses to the COVID 19 pandemic spread to Montreal, London, Amsterdam and Paris. The practice sparked condemnation by various Jewish advocacy groups and Holocaust survivors. On 31 October 2023, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations Gilad Erdan, as well as other Israeli delegates, began wearing yellow star badges with the words "Never Again" written on them, in protest to criticism of Israel's conduct during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war. Erdan claimed that the UN Security Council was "silent" about the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel, and said that he would wear the star "as a symbol of pride". However, this decision was immediately condemned by Yad Vashem chairman Dani Dayan, calling it a "[disgrace to] the victims of the Holocaust as well as the state of Israel", pointing out that the slaughter of Jews by Hamas differs from the Holocaust in that "Jews have today a state and an army. We are not defenseless and at the mercy of others." According to Ynet, unnamed officials from Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs were also highly critical of the decision, with one calling it a "cheap gimmick that doesn’t serve our goal", and others describing it as an attempt to appeal to Likud party members.

717–720 Caliph Umar II orders non Muslims (dhimmi) to wear vestimentary distinctions (called giyār, i. e. distinguishing marks). 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 coloured. 887/888 The 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.

1215 The Fourth Council of the Lateran 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. 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.

Local German occupation commanders ordered Jewish Poles to wear an identifying mark under the threat of death. There were no consistent requirements as to its colour and shape: it varies from a white armband, a yellow hat to a yellow Star of David badge. Hans Frank ordered all Jewish Poles over the age of 11 years in German occupied Poland to wear white armbands with a blue Star of David.

A popular legend portrays king Christian X of Denmark wearing the yellow badge on his daily morning horseback ride through the streets of Copenhagen, followed by non Jewish Danes responding to their king's example, thus preventing the Germans from identifying Jewish citizens. Queen Margrethe II of Denmark has explained that the story was not true. No order requiring Jews to wear identifying marks was ever introduced in Denmark.

Jews in the Independent State of Croatia, a puppet state of Nazi Germany, are ordered to wear "Jewish insignia". 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. All Romanian Jews were ordered to wear the yellow badge. The yellow badge was the only standardised identifying mark in the German occupied East; other signs were forbidden. Jewish Germans and Jews with citizenship of annexed states (Austrians, Czechs, Danzigers) from the age of six years were ordered to wear the yellow badge from 19 September when in public. The Slovak Republic 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.

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. Jewish Dutch people ordered to wear the yellow badge. Jewish Belgians ordered to wear the yellow badge. Jews in occupied France, covering the northern and western half of the country, were ordered to wear a yellow star by the German authorities. Bulgaria ordered its Jewish citizens to wear small yellow buttons. 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.

After the occupation of Hungary, the Nazi occupiers ordered Jewish Hungarians and Jews with defunct other citizenships (Czechoslovak, Romanian, Yugoslav) in Hungarian annexed areas to wear the yellow badge.