NOTE: This item sold in our shop in early June 2017 to a private collector. The catalogue of nightmares during Nazi rule in Germany is vast, and the relics left from this time period are chilling. Many of these relics reside in public and private collections, and are important reminders of a past never to be repeated. One item in a large collection of German militaria we recently acquired stood out, both because of its rarity and because of its visceral connection to Nazi brutality. This is an armband worn by a prisoner in a concentration camp, emblazoned with an inverted pink triangle. These were issued to what the Nazis termed “sexual deviants,” a group composed overwhelmingly of gay men. While it’s true that in theory other sexual offenders would wear these armbands, in practice over 99% of pink triangle armbands were worn by gay men. The armband is made of rough … Read More
