Yellow Badge - Timeline

Timeline

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 most historians question the historicity of the pact, the use of distinguishing marks is consistent with documentary and archaeological evidence from 7th and 8th century Iraq and Syria. The pact itself is thought to be an invention of later jurists seeking justification for certain cultural practices that had developed over time.

850

A decree of the Abbassid Caliph Al-Mutawakkil, reported by the 10th 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 Baghdad 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.

1121

A letter from Baghdad describes decrees regulating Jewish clothes: "two yellow badges, one on the headgear and one on the neck. Furthermore, each Jew must hang round his neck a piece of lead with the word dhimmi on it. He also has to wear a belt round his waist. The women have to wear one red and one black shoe and have a small bell on their necks or shoes."

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 (of their garments) 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 (a cone-shaped head dress, common in medieval illustrations of Jews); the badge does not seem to have been worn in Austria.

1269, June 19

France. (Saint) Louis IX of France orders all Jews found in public without a badge (French: rouelle or roue, Latin: rota) 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 Ismael 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 Avignon Pope 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 (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 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 (about $75,000 worth of silver at 2007 prices) each.

1938, August 17

The Nazi regime forced Jewish Germans and the stateless Jews with Austrian citizenship to adopt additional middle names (mostly Israel or Sarah, few other derogatory names considered "Jewish" were alternatively possible) to be used at any occasion such as signatures, visit cards, addresses, firms etc.

1938, October

Jewish Germans had to turn in their passports to get them stamped in a black J, Jewish Austrians had been denied German citizenship and their Austrian passports had turned void.

1939, January

Jewish Germans and Austrians had to adopt special identity cards to be carried on them whenever away from home.

1939, September and October

A number of local German occupational commanders ordered in their areas Jewish Poles 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.

1939, 23 November 1939

Hans Frank ordered for all Jewish Poles above the age of 11 years in German-occupied Poland to wear white armbands with a blue Magen David on.

1940

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.

1941, 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.

1941, August 8

All Romanian Jews have to wear the yellow badge.

1941, August 13

The yellow badge was the only standardised identifying mark in the German-occupied East, other signs were forbidden.

1941, September 1

Also 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 when in public.

1941, 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.

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.

1942, April 29

Jewish Dutch people are forced to wear the yellow badge

1942, June 3

Jewish Belgians have to wear the yellow badge

1942, June 7

On German command Jewish Frenchmen were to wear the yellow badge, Vichy to refused that.

1942, August

With the German annexation of Luxembourg the yellow badge was introduced there too.

1942, August

Under German pressure Bulgaria ordered its Jewish citizens to wear small yellow buttons, contravention, however, was not prosecuted.

1942, November

With the occupation of the French Zone libre Jews there were also forced wearing the yellow badge.

1944, March 31

After the occupation of Hungary the German occupants ordered Jewish Hungarians and Jews with defunct other citizenships (Czechoslovakian, Romanian, Yugoslavian) in Hungarian-annexed areas to wear the yellow badge.

2001

During the rule of the Islamist Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the Hindu minority in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan 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 States and India 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 Bhopal, India. The Government of India condemned this decree as a violation of religious freedom. In the United States, 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.