Boss Factory Made Nazi Uniforms -- Fashion-Design Firm Surprised To Learn Of Concentration-Camp Workers

The German clothing factory that became the international men's wear powerhouse Hugo Boss AG manufactured Nazi uniforms during World War II and likely did so using slave labor.

The revelation appeared in the latest issue of the Austrian current affairs magazine Profil. A statement from Hugo Boss AG, which is based in Metzingen, Germany, details and confirms much of the account.

"The clothing factory founded by Mr. Hugo Boss manufactured work clothes and we think SS uniforms as well. . . . So far, we have no archives in the company, and we're currently trying to find what was going on," says Monika Steilen, spokeswoman for Hugo Boss AG."This is the first time we have heard of the history."

Boss founded his family-owned garment business in 1923. The company struggled for a time, fell into bankruptcy, and then, during the war, made the uniforms worn by the German SS, storm troopers, Wehrmacht and Hitler Youth. It's likely that the factory was manned by forced labor, including concentration-camp prisoners and prisoners of war.

Following the war, according to Profil, Boss was ostracized as an "opportunist of the Third Reich," stripped of his voting rights and fined 80,000 marks.

Over time, the family business was passed from sons to grandsons. In 1953, it produced its first men's suits. By the early 1970s, it was beginning its transformation into a manufacturer of pricey and fashion-conscious men's power suits and sportswear.

In 1985, the company went public in Germany. Now, the majority of stock is held by the Italian fashion conglomerate Marzotto Group. No family members are currently involved in the company.

News of Hugo Boss AG's tainted past caught New York's Seventh Avenue off guard. In a business where news spreads like wildfire and rumors fly even faster, the Boss story had been kept under wraps. The industry is slowly absorbing the news and wondering about the possible effect on the company's image and business fortunes.

The company's straightforward approach in dealing with the disclosure should serve it well, observes Frank Mankiewicz, vice chairman of Hill & Knowlton, a powerhouse public-relations firm adept at crisis management.

Such bombshells about German companies that have been in operation since the war are not unusual. BMW used slave labor to repair airplane engines, says Steven Luckert, historian and a curator at the Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Certainly hundreds of German firms were involved in producing material for the war effort," he says.

And as working-class Germans went off to fight, a labor shortage developed. Businessmen could and did turn to concentration camps for workers. Says Luckert: "The laborers weren't forced on them."

Still, being a manufacturer of Nazi uniforms, as opposed to airplane parts or rivets, packs a larger emotional punch.

"Even looking at some of these uniforms, because of what they were associated with, fills a lot of people with dread and terror," Luckert says. Even today, the uniform "symbolizes what the Nazis stood for - terror, persecution, the power of the state."