When Allied troops freed the other survivors of the camps, the Gay and Lesbian prisoners were taken by U. S. Army personnel from concentration camps to allied prisons. Since the 1940's, the pink and black triangles have become the most recognizable and powerful symbols for gay people and the oppression they have faced throughout Western History.

A cumulative estimated 220,000 gays and lesbians died along with Jews, gypsies, and members of the Nazi resistance from the beginnings of the rise of nazi power, in the concentration camps of Hitler's nazi Germany and during the aftermath of the war.

Concentration camp prisoners were identified by a set of colored triangles.

    

Gay men in nazi death camps were required to wear Pink Triangles, (with one tip pointed down), on their uniforms to identify them for special abuse. The Pink Triangle is now used as a gay identification symbol as well as a reminder of oppression.

The pink triangle is a symbol of the phrase "Never Forget,Never Again." The pink triangle, inverted, was also adopted by ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to UnleashPower) as their symbol for "an active fight back rather than a passive resignation to fate."

The Black Triangle was used to identify "socially unacceptable" women, according to the Nazis. Lesbians were included in this classification.

Now, Lesbians have reclaimed the Black Triangle as our symbol in defiance of repression and discrimination as Gay men have reclaimed the Pink Triangle.