Editing Freemasonry (section)

====The Holocaust====
{{Main|Holocaust victims#Freemasons}}
{{See also|Liberté chérie|Suppression of Freemasonry}}
[[File:Forgetmenotflower.JPG|thumb|upright|alt=[[Forget-me-not]]|[[Myosotis|Forget-me-not]]]]

The preserved records of the ''[[Reich Security Main Office|Reichssicherheitshauptamt]]'' (the Reich Security Main Office) show the persecution of Freemasons during [[the Holocaust]].<ref>{{cite web | url = http://mill-valley.freemasonry.biz/persecution.htm | title = World War II Documents showing the persecution of Freemasonry | publisher = Mill Valley Lodge #356 | access-date = 21 May 2006 | url-status=dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121210071945/http://mill-valley.freemasonry.biz/persecution.htm | archive-date = 10 December 2012 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> RSHA Amt VII (Written Records), overseen by Professor [[Franz Six]], was responsible for "ideological" tasks, by which was meant the creation of antisemitic and anti-Masonic propaganda. While the number of victims is not accurately known, historians estimate that between 80,000 and 200,000 Freemasons were killed under the [[Nacht und Nebel|Nazi regime]].<ref name="holocaust">''Freemasons for Dummies'', by Christopher Hodapp, Wiley Publishing Inc., Indianapolis, 2005, p. 85, sec. "Hitler and the Nazi"</ref> Masonic concentration camp inmates were classified as political prisoners and wore an inverted [[Nazi concentration camp badge|red triangle]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | encyclopedia = The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust | page = [https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofho0000unse_l4l4/page/ vol. 2, p. 531] | last = Katz | year = 1990 | editor = Israel Gutman | article = Jews and Freemasons in Europe | isbn = 978-0-02-897166-7 | oclc = 20594356 | url = https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofho0000unse_l4l4/page/ }}</ref> Hitler believed Freemasons had succumbed to Jews conspiring against Germany.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007186|title=Freemasonry|access-date=20 October 2016|archive-date=21 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161021010933/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007186|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/hitler.html|title=Hitler and Freemasonry|first=Trevor W.|last=McKeown|access-date=20 October 2016|archive-date=15 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161015135555/http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/hitler.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Myosotis|forget-me-not]] flower was first used by the Grand Lodge ''Zur Sonne'' in 1926, as a Masonic emblem at the annual convention in [[Bremen]], Germany. In 1938, a forget-me-not badge, made by the same factory as the Masonic badge, was chosen for the Nazi Party's ''[[Winterhilfswerk]]'', the annual charity drive of the [[National Socialist People's Welfare]] (the welfare branch of the Nazi party). This coincidence enabled Freemasons to wear the forget-me-not badge as a secret sign of membership.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.internetloge.de/arst/forgetd.htm | title = Das Vergißmeinnicht-Abzeichen und die Freimaurerei, Die wahre Geschichte | language = de | publisher = Internetloge.de | access-date = 8 July 2006 | archive-date = 2 May 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190502130221/http://www.internetloge.de/arst/forgetd.htm | url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/bernheim3.html | first = Alain | last = Bernheim | title = The Blue Forget-Me-Not: Another Side Of The Story | work = Pietre-Stones Review of Freemasonry | date = 10 September 2004 | access-date = 8 July 2006 | archive-date = 30 January 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190130081218/http://www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/bernheim3.html | url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book| title = Die Freimaurer-Logen Deutschlands und deren Grosslogen 1737–1972 | first = Karl Heinz | last = Francke |author2=Ernst-Günther Geppert | location = Bayreuth | publisher = Quatuor Coronati | year = 1974 | language = de | edition = Second rev.}}Also in: {{Cite book| title = Die Freimaurer-Logen Deutschlands und deren Grosslogen 1737–1985 : Matrikel und Stammbuch; Nachschlagewerk über 248 Jahre Geschichte der Freimaurerei in Deutschland | first = Karl Heinz | last = Francke |author2=Ernst-Günther Geppert | location = Bayreuth | publisher = Quatuor Coronati | year = 1988 | language = de | isbn = 978-3-925749-05-6 | oclc = 75446479 }}</ref>

After [[World War II]], the forget-me-not flower was used again as a Masonic emblem in 1948 at the first Annual Convention of the [[United Grand Lodges of Germany]] in 1948. The badge is now sometimes worn in the coat lapel by Freemasons around the world to remember all who suffered in the name of Freemasonry, especially those during the Nazi era.<ref name=Galen_forget-me-not>{{cite news|title=The Story Behind Forget Me Not Emblem!|url=http://www.masonicnetwork.org/blog/2009/the-story-behind-forget-me-not-emblem/|newspaper=Masonic Network|date=11 December 2009|access-date=19 May 2013|archive-date=6 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306011314/http://www.masonicnetwork.org/blog/2009/the-story-behind-forget-me-not-emblem/|url-status=dead}}</ref>