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Anorak News | Buy Hugo Boss And Ensure Nazis Slaves Did No Die In Vain: German Fashion Label Confesses

Buy Hugo Boss And Ensure Nazis Slaves Did No Die In Vain: German Fashion Label Confesses

by | 24th, September 2011

THANKS to the Allies, Hugo Boss does nto only make brown shirts. But it was once the Number 1 supplier of uniforms to the German war effort.

Finally, the German fashion label has apologised for backing those dapper Nazis and using slave labour to make its clothes.

Boss wishes to: “express its profound regret to those who suffered harm or hardship at the factory run by Hugo Ferdinand Boss under National Socialist rule.”

Philipp Wolff, senior vice president of communications, explains:

“We don’t want and have never wanted to hide anything, but rather want to bring clarity to the past. It’s our responsibility to the company, our employees, our customers and everyone interested in Hugo Boss and its history.”

Always good to come clean 70 years after the event when the company is thriving.

The revelations comes in a news book commissioned by the firm. Hugo Boss, 1924-1945: The History of a Clothing Factory During the Weimar Republic and Third Reich reveals that “140 Polish forced labourers, mostly women, as well as some 40 French prisoners of war, were made to work for Boss during the Holocaust. They were housed in a camp in one area of the factory, and lived in extremely poor conditions with ‘uncertain’ food and hygiene levels.”

The book’s author, one Roman Koester, an economic historian at the German Armed Forces University in Munich, tells us:

“We can only repeat that the behaviour towards the forced labourers was at times harsh and involved coercion, but that concern for their welfare was also displayed, rendering simplistic characterisations impossible.”

You can picture the scene as the factory enforcer (four-button suits, turn-ups with felt detailing approaches his favourite seamstress (sheet with holes):

“Do you work or I’ll shoot you and your family in the face. And – hey – have an extra slice of bread. After all, we’re all in this together.”

The good news is that so much collaboration and support for genocide was not in vain but now feature in a marketing drive. Don’t boycott Boss – buy Boss and ensure that those slaves did not toil in vain…



Posted: 24th, September 2011 | In: The Consumer Comment | TrackBack | Permalink