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The yellow badge (or yellow patch), also referred to as a Jewish badge, was a cloth patch that Jews were ordered to sew on their outer garments in order to mark them as Jews in public. It was intended to be a badge of shame associated with antisemitism. In both Christian and Islamic countries, persons not of the dominant religion were intermittently compelled by sumptuary laws to wear badges, hats, bells or other items of clothing that distinguished them from members of the dominant religious group. The yellow badge was revived by the German Nazis.


Muslim countries

In Muslim countries, Jews, like all non-Muslims, were treated as second class subjects. This was expressed through sumptuary laws that established what colors, clothing or hats they were permitted or not permitted to wear. The use of distinctive clothing or marks for Jewish and other religious communities has been traced by historians to ancient times. In the early Islamic period, non-Muslims were required to wear distinctive marks in public, such as metal seals fixed around their necks. Tattooing and branding of slaves and captives were widespread in the ancient world. However, Islam, like Judaism, forbids permanent skin markings.

Likewise, they were not allowed to wear colors associated with Islam, particularly green.The practice of physically branding Jews and Christians appears to have been begun in early medieval Baghdad and was considered highly degrading. According to Bernard Lewis, Christians and Jews were forced to wear special emblems on their clothes. The yellow badge was first introduced by a caliph in Baghdad in the ninth century, and spread to the West in medieval times. Even in public baths, non-Muslims wore medallions suspended from cords around their necks so no one would mistake them for Muslims. Belts, headgear, shoes, armbands and/or cloth patches were also used. Under Shi'a rules, they were not even allowed to use the same baths In 1005 the Jews of Egypt were ordered to wear bells on their garments.

Apart from Jews, Hindus living under Islamic rule in India were often forced to wear yellow badges as well.During the reign of Akbar the Great, his general Husain Khan 'Tukriya' forcibly made Hindus wear discriminatory yellow badges on their shoulders or sleeves.

Christian countries

In Christian countries, dress codes were also imposed on Jewish and other non-Christian residents. In Europe, the Fourth Council of the Lateran of 1215 ruled that Jews and Muslims must be distinguishable by their dress (Latin "habitus")", and the yellow badge in Europe dates from this, unlike the Jewish hat (or "Judenhut"), 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 sixteenth century, the use of the Judenhut declined, but the badge tended to outlast it, surviving into the eighteenth century in places, even longer in Imperial Russia.

The identifying mark varied from one country to another, and from period to period. Apart from the hat, there were also attempts to enforce the wearing of full-length robes, which in late 14th century Romemarker were supposed to be red. The most common form of badge was the "rota" or "wheel", which looked like a ring, of white or yellow. The shape and color of the patch also varied, although the color was usually white or yellow. Married women were often required to wear two bands of blue on their veil or head-scarf.

Edward I of England's Statute of Jewry prescribed "the form of two Tables joined, of yellow felt of the length of six inches and of the breadth of three inches". This shape — two separate strips or two joined round-topped rectangles — was particular to England.

In Portugalmarker a red star of David was used.

Louis IX of France ordered French Jews to wear oval rouelle, a version of the "rota". As with all sumptuary laws, enforcement of the rules was very variable; in Marseillesmarker the magistrates ignored accusations of breaches, and in some places individuals or communities could buy exemption.

Nazi period

After the German invasion of Poland in 1939 there were initially different local decrees forcing Jews to wear a distinctive sign, during the General Government.



Jews being beaten, from an English manuscript.
The yellow badge is in the shape of the Tablets of the Law.
717: Possible date of the Pact of Umar which stipulates that Christians (and by implication also Jews) living in Muslim lands are required to wear distinctive clothing. Although there are questions about the status of this document as a historic source, the use of distinguishing marks is consistent with documentary and archaeological evidence from seventh century and eighth century Iraq and Syria.
850: A decree of the Abbassid Caliph Al-Mutawakkil, reported by the tenth century historian Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, requires Christian and Jewish subjects to wear honey-coloured hoods and belts of a particular type. Distinguishing marks are also prescribed for their slaves.
1005: Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim, orders Jewish and Christian residents to wear bells on their garments and a "golden calf" (made of wood) around the neck when bathing with Muslims.
1058: Start of less tolerant policy towards Christians and Jews by the Seljuk authorities in the Abbasid empire. Existing laws imposing distinctive dress are enforced. Non-Muslims in Baghdadmarker are forced to wear signs on their dress.
1085: Non-Muslims are required to wear distinctive signs on their turbans.
1091: Abbasid Caliph Al-Muqtadi decrees that the "non-believers" had to wear yellow headgear and girdles of various colors, and a sign of lead around their necks to show they had to pay the poll-tax. Women had to wear shoes of different colors, such as one red and the other black.
Jews (identifiable by rouelle) being burned at stake.
From medieval manuscript.
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 white band, two fingers broad and four long.
1228: James I orders Jews of Aragonmarker 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 Viennamarker city council forces Jews to wear Pileum cornutum (a cone-shaped head dress, common in medieval illustrations of Jews); the badge does not seem to have been worn in Austria.
Jewish ring from a Hebrew Passover manuscript, German 15th century

1269 June 19: Francemarker. (Saint) Louis IX of France orders all Jews found in public without a badge ( or roue, ) to be fined ten livres of silver. The enforcement of wearing the badge is repeated by local councils, with varying degrees of fines, at Arlesmarker 1234 and 1260, Béziersmarker 1246, Albimarker 1254, Nîmesmarker 1284 and 1365, Avignonmarker 1326 and 1337, Rodezmarker 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: Erfurtmarker. The earliest mention of the badge in Germany.
1315–1326: Emir Ismael Abu-I-Walid forces the Jews of Granadamarker to wear the yellow badge.
1321: Henry II of Castile forces the Jews to wear the yellow badge.
1415 May 11: Bull of the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII orders the Jews to wear a yellow and red badge, the men on their breast, the women on the cloth covering their forehead.
1434: Emperor Sigismund reintroduces the badge at Augsburgmarker.
1528: The Council of Ten of Venicemarker 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 (subsequently made permanent), 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 Lithuanianmarker 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 (about $75,000 worth of silver at 2007 prices) each.
1939–1945: The Nazi regimes in the occupied countries of Europe force Jews to wear an identifying mark under the threat of death. There are no consistent requirements as to its color and shape: it varies from a white armband to a yellow Star of David badge.
1940: A popular legend portrays king Christian X of Denmark wearing the yellow badge on his daily morning horseback ride through the streets of Copenhagenmarker, 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.

2001: During the reign of the Islamist Taliban regime in Afghanistanmarker, the Hindu minority in the country were forced to wear yellow badges in public to identify themselves as such. This was part of the Taliban's plan to segregate "un-Islamic" and "idolatrous" communities from Islamic ones. The decree was condemned by the Governments of the United Statesmarker and Indiamarker as a gross violation of religious freedom. In the United States, the chairman of the Anti-Defamation League Abraham Foxman compared the decree to the earlier practices of Nazi Germany. Widespread protests against the Taliban regime broke out in Bhopalmarker, Indiamarker. The Government of India condemned this decree as a violation of religious freedom. In the United Statesmarker, congressmen and several lawmakers wore yellow badges on the floor of the Senate during the debate as a demonstration of their solidarity with the Hindu minority in Afghanistan.

See also


  1. Lewis, Bernard. The Jews of Islam, Princeton University Press, 1984, p. 62. "But their status was one of legal and social inferiority or, as we would say nowadays, of second-class citizenship".
  2. The Yellow Star by Jennifer Rosenberg (
  3. Hourani, Albert, A History of the Arab Peoples, London: Faber and Faber, 1991, ISBN 0-571-16663-6, p.117
  4. Bernard Lewis, Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry Into Conflict and Prejudice, 1999, W. W. Norton & Company press, ISBN 0-393-31839-7, p.131
  5. Lewis, Bernard. The Jews of Islam, Princeton University Press, Jun 1, 1987, pp. 25-26.
  6. Jewish Encyclopedia: Yellow badge
  7. Schreckenburg, Heinz, The Jews in Christian Art, p. 15, 1996, Continuum, New York, ISBN 0826409369, though the Jewish Encyclopedia cites a reference from 1208 in France. See the Jewish Encyclopedia for the Judenhut being more widespread than the badge.
  8. Schreckenburg: 308–329.
  9. Schreckenburg:15, although Piponnier and Mane, p. 137 say red was commonest for badges of all shapes, followed by yellow or green, or red and white together.
  10. Piponnier and Mane, p. 137.
  11. Schreckenburg: 305.
  12. Françoise Piponnier and Perrine Mane; Dress in the Middle Ages; p. 137, Yale UP, 1997; ISBN 0300069065.
  13. Encyclopedia of the Holocaust (at the Museum of Tolerance).
  14. Polizeiverordnung über die Kennzeichnung der Juden (came into force September 19, 1941).
  15. Buildings Integral to the Former Life and/or Persecution of Jews in Hamburg
  16. al-Mutawakkil's decree of 850 (JVL)
  17. Fatimids and Seljuks: 909 CE - 1100s CE. How Spain Became the Intellectual Center of the Jewish World (
  18. Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews (1987), p.204
  19. Fourth Lateran Council, Canon 68
  20. Norman Rose in Medieval Jewish Civilization: An Encyclopedia (Routledge)- "Jewish Clothing".
  21. Fourth Lateran Council, Canon68
  22. Medieval Sourcebook, Las Siete Partidas: Laws on Jews[1] accessed 18-09-2006
  23. [http://(Jewish Encyclopedia yellow badge op. cit)
  24. Jacob Mantino ben Samuel, (Jewish Encyclopedia)
  25. Amos Elon: The Pity of It All: A History of the Jews in Germany, 1743-1933 (Metropolitan Books, 2002) p.15. ISBN 0805059644. See talk page for conversion.
  26. Anne Wolden-Ræthinge (1990) Queen in Denmark, Copenhagen: Gyldendal, ISBN 8701086235
  27. Did King Christian X of Denmark wear a yellow star in support of the Danish Jews? (USHMM Research Library). Accessed 2006-08-17.
  28. Gunnar S. Paulsson, "The Bridge over the Øresund", Journal of Contemporary History, June 1995.
  29. Taliban to mark Afghan Hindus,CNN
  30. Taliban: Hindus Must Wear Identity Labels,People's Daily
  31. India deplores Taleban decree against Hindus,
  32. US Lawmakers Condemn Taliban Treatment Of Hindus,
  33. US lawmakers say: We are Hindus,

External links

Yellow badges in the Middle Ages

Yellow badges in the Nazi period 1939-1945

Denmark: The king against the yellow badge

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