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Hugo Boss was part of the Nazi party.

Is that okay we forgot?

During World War II, Hugo Boss, the founder of the German fashion house, produced uniforms for Nazi soldiers and officers.

Since seven decades have passed, the brand’s decision makers have changed, the company has apologized and no more antisemitic incidents have been recorded.

Maybe it's not so terrible that we ignore history?

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• Hugo Boss

• Nazis

Gal Slonimsky

Thursday, 08 April 2021, 06:50 Updated: 08:39

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The Boss brand was founded by an ardent supporter of Nazism (Photo: GettyImages)

76 years have passed since the end of World War II.

Every year anew we tell the stories, hear the testimonies.

When in the background there are voices seeking to deny the Holocaust, the war for memory becomes daily.

When one of the most popular men's clothing brands in the world and in Israel was founded by an ardent supporter of Nazism, the question arises - is it okay to move on, almost eight decades later?

In 1924, Hugo Ferdinand Boss founded a fashion house bearing his name in the city of Metzingen in southern Germany.

It was not such a good time to start a new business, but Boss was determined.

In the factory he set up he produced work clothes, sportswear and coats.

These are the days after the First World War - Germany is in an economic downturn, the one that eventually prepared the ground for the rise of the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler to power.

Hugo Boss' business did not prosper, and he even reached the brink of bankruptcy, which was avoided at the very last minute.

Out of the economic frustration he was in, Boss joined the Nazi party and made connections there, a few years before the outbreak of war and mass murder.

The Nazi party mainly conveyed messages of economic optimism, which attracted many supporters - and the boss himself.

By 1931 he had already officially joined the party.

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The Boss fashion house was founded in 1924 in Germany, in the midst of an economic crisis, by Hugo Boss (Photo: GettyImages)

At the beginning of that decade, as part of his support for the Nazi party, the Hugo Boss fashion house began producing uniforms for Nazi organizations.

Among those wearing the uniform were members of the SS, members of the Hitler Youth Movement and also soldiers and SS officers of the Nazi party's defense movement.

According to Elizabeth Tim's 1999 book, "Hugo Ferdinand Boss and His Firm", in advertisements from 1934-1935 Hugo Boss introduced himself as the "official manufacturer of party uniforms".

This was despite the fact that there were quite a few other manufacturers of the Nazis.

Boss's financial situation improved miraculously in those years and he concentrated most of his work on producing uniforms for the Nazis - browns for regular soldiers and black uniforms for SS soldiers.

To meet the many demands learned in its design, the company even employed 140 forced laborers and prisoners of war.

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In these years the fashion industry is stagnant.

While the whole world is engaged in war, there is no time to engage in couture fashion, nor is there any demand.

And so, out of the crash of the fashion industry, Hugo Boss manages to stabilize financially.

He later tried to claim that he was not happy with the situation and it all stemmed from purely economic considerations, but Hugo Boss, unlike other designers who were required to come to Berlin to design for the Nazis - was not forced to do anything.

Although the economic consideration was present in his decision-making process, Boss did so also because of his support for the party.

To be precise - Hugo Boss was one of Adolf Hitler's biggest fans, and according to some historians, in his apartment even hung a joint picture of the two.

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After the war, Boss' enthusiastic support for Nazism cost him dearly.

Since he was considered an activist in the party, in 1946 a German court banned him from continuing his business, he was denied the right to vote and he was fined more than $ 70,000 (one hundred thousand marks).

Two years later, in 1948, Hugo Boss passed away.

Due to the ban imposed on Boss to continue his business, the one who later took over the company was his son-in-law, Jochen Holly, who decided to revive the business.

The company first produced uniforms for police officers and postmen and in the 1950s began producing men's suits, one of the items most identified with the company today.

In 1967, the company passed to Holly's sons, who decided to rebrand it.

Among other things, to label themselves as a luxury company and change the name to "Boss".

Over the years, Boss built a solid reputation for herself, and managed to bury her connection to the Nazi party.

The company's status as an authority on luxury suits for men has been established and today the company owns hundreds of stores around the world.

The suits that have become a thing of the past.

Hugo Boss Track, 2007 (Photo: AP, Hugo Boss, HO)

And what about the brand's history and its ties to the Nazis?

In August 1997, a spokeswoman for the company officially acknowledged the brand's ties with the Nazi government during World War II.

Siegfried Boss, the son of the company's founder, admitted in the 1990s, when he was 83, that his father was a member of the Nazi party, claiming that "at the time it was true of everyone."

A decade ago, the company apologized for forcibly employing workers during the war.

Many of those who today wear Boss suits or clothes, and even perfume one of the popular perfumes of the German fashion house, are not at all aware of this painful history.

However, does it matter at all?

Will the knowledge cause such and other consumers to boycott the brand today, more than 70 years after the war?

Boss' son claimed: "At the time it was true for everyone."

SS officers during the demolition of the Warsaw ghetto (Photo: AP)

It could be argued that it no longer matters.

Seven decades have passed since Hugo Boss himself, a fan of Nazism in general and Hitler in particular, headed the fashion house and influenced decision-making.

Since then, the tops of the fashion house have changed several times, and it is likely that those in power positions in the brand today do not support Nazism.

Alongside this, the fashion house itself has apologized for its wrongdoings regarding forced employment, and over the years, and unlike many other designers or brands, no bosses have recorded antisemitic or racist incidents.

If we allowed ourselves to feel comfortable with flights to Berlin, the purchase of Volkswagen cars, a company founded by the Nazis and forcibly employing Jewish workers, it may be possible to soak up and move forward with the fine fashion house, despite the stain on history.

If we can fly to Berlin - we can also forgive Hugo Boss.

Boss headquarters in Metzingen, Germany (Photo: AP, Thomas Kienzle)

However, is it possible that forgiveness means blurring the truth? Maybe this is the way to deny and forget the Holocaust, something that is already happening these days, and is expected to intensify in the future? The ability to forgive is elusive and difficult to quantify into an instruction sheet or rulebook. There are no unequivocal answers. While there are organizations, individuals and even countries that have managed to clear the reputation of their ties to the Nazi party, as well as obscure historical facts, there are those who have not received this containing treatment, such as composer Richard Wagner whose works are banned in Israel to this day.

With the strengthening of "conscious fashion", in which consumers learn well the brands from which they purchase - from the terms of employment of the employees to the process of production of the items, it is appropriate that the thought of the brand's history be part of the whole. How clean the brand base is and includes within it controversial moral decisions or involvement in genocide.

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