A mandatory mark or a piece of cloth of specific geometric shape, worn on the outer garment in order to distinguish a person of certain religion or ethnicity in public. Yellow badge is traditionally associated with persecution of Jews. In some countries badge was accompanied or replaced by identifying garb or hat. In the Middle Ages clothes worn by different groups of people were regulated by law.
853 Caliph Al-Mutavallil of Persia issues a yellow badge edict.
1005 Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim orders Jews of Egypt and the Land of Israel to wear bells on their garments and "golden calf" (made of wood) around the neck. In 1301, they were obliged to wear yellow turbans.
1215Fourth 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." (Canon 68)
1269France June 19. St. Louis IX of France ordered all Jews found in public without a badge (AKA rouelle or roue) to be fined ten livres of silver.
1274Edward I of England enforces the decree. The badge was a piece of yellow cloth in the shape of the Tablets of the Law which had to be worn above the heart by every Jew over the age of 7.
1294Erfurt: 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.
1528 The municipal board of Venice allows famous physician and professor Jacob Mantino ben Samuel to wear the regular black doctors' cap instead of Jewish yellow hat for two months (period extended later), upon the recommendation of the French and English ambassadors, the papal legate, and other dignitaries numbered among his patients.
1566 King Sigismund II passes a law that required Lithuanian Jews to wear yellow hats and head coverings. The law was abolished 20 years later.
Yellow badge also appeared in the German regulations during Nazi regime. It was then a part of the plan of Holocaust and motivated by anti-Semitism.
1933-1945 During the Holocaust, Nazi regime forced Jews in some occupied countries to wear identifying mark under threat of death. There was no consistent requirements across Europe as to color and shape: from white armband to yellow Star of David badge.
1940 The Danes undertake heroic efforts to shelter their Jews and help them escape from the Nazis to Sweden. A popular legend portrays king Christian X of Denmark wearing an armband as he makes 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 and rendering the Nazi order ineffective. In the book Queen in Denmark (by Anne Wolden-Ręthinge) the Queen Margrethe II of Denmark says about the legend: "It is a beautiful and symbolic story, but it is not true. The myth about the King wearing the star of David... To me, the truth is an even greater honor for our country than the myth."
