Campaign Life Coalition Youth is launching a new project this month. “We’re very excited about it,” reports Gillian Long, executive director of CLCY. “As far as we know, this particular thing has never been done in the pro-life movement.”

The Red Triangle Campaign seeks to draw parallels between the defenders of the Jews during the Nazi Holocaust and the defenders of the unborn today. “The parallels have been made between the unborn and the Jews by many pro-life commentators and groups. The Red Triangle Campaign draws on the connection between the ‘righteous of the nations’ or ‘righteous Gentiles’ who aided the Jews, and today’s pro-lifers who aid the unborn,” Long explained. “The brave people who unselfishly risked their lives in the Second World War to save their Jewish neighbours are a wonderful example to today’s pro-life activist.”

During the Nazi persecution of the Jews, different triangular patches were used to identify prisoners in concentration camps. Jews were often made to wear patches arranged into a Star of David, with at least one of the triangles being yellow to mark their ethnicity. Other patches included black triangles for “anti-socials” and blue for emigrants, while red was reserved for political prisoners.

Many political prisoners were Christians who had been arrested for opposing the Nazi treatment of Jews, or who had defended or hidden Jews. One of the most famous of these prisoners was Fr. Bernhard Lichtenberg.

As provost of Berlin Cathedral, he strongly opposed the Nazis’ treatment of the Jews. He was reported to the Gestapo for his sympathies after he offered public prayers for the Jews in the wake of Kristellenacht. A resulting search of his home revealed an undelivered homily denouncing the National Socialist regime. He was arrested and died on his way to Dachau.

This month, CLCY will begin distributing red triangle lapel pins as a reminder of the red patches that prisoners were forced to wear for their pro-life stance toward Jews. CLCY hopes that pro-lifers will wear them in solidarity with the heroes of World War II who put their lives on the line for their Jewish neighbours, and as an accusation against our murderous culture, which allows, and even encourages, the destruction of the unborn, as the Nazis pursued their destruction of the Jews. While the defenders of the unborn are not yet putting their lives in danger by being pro-life, every single pro-life person is making some kind of sacrifice for his or her beliefs, and many have been injured and imprisoned while protesting the Canadian holocaust of the unborn.

“We expect there will a ‘generation gap’ in the perception of this project,” said Long. “But we have to do something different from what has been done before. We are also prepared to deal with those pro-lifers who are uncomfortable with the comparison. This is something that we have thought about and discussed at length. We finally realized that if we didn’t make the comparison, it showed that we thought the unborn are not as important as the Jews. And that is not the case.”

The pins are a half-inch high and can be purchased by contacting Long at CLC in Toronto: (416) 204-9749 or 1-800-730-5358. The cost is $3 per pin, plus shipping and handling. Discounts are available for bulk purchases.