Something one says that means people should not criticize others for a fault that they have themselves
Hugo Ferdinand Boss (8 July 1885 – 9 August 1948), a German fashion designer, businessman-Nazi supporter, founder of Hugo Boss AG, often styled as BOSS, a German luxury fashion house, founded in 1924 by Hugo Boss and is headquartered in Metzingen, Germany. Boss joined the Nazi Party in 1931, two years before Adolf Hitler came to power. It was a supplier for Nazi Party organizations … By third quarter 1932, the all-black SS uniform was designed by SS members, replacing SA brown shirts. The Hugo Boss company produced the black uniforms with the brown SA shirts and the black-and-brown uniforms of the Hitler Youth. Some workers acknowledged to have been French and Polish prisoners of war were forced into labour. In 1999, US lawyers acting on behalf of Holocaust survivors started legal proceedings against the Hugo Boss company for using slave labour during the war. The misuse of 140 Polish and 40 French forced workers led to an apology by the company. Rudolf Born was one earliest clients, a textiles distributor commissioned Hugo Boss to produce brown shirts for the ‘National Socialist Party’, later, becoming better known as the Nazis. By late Twenties, the growing Nazi Party had become a good client. The Party supplied Hugo Boss and other manufacturers the production templates. It appears Boss saw the relationship only as commercial. However, April 1, 1931, Boss took a step that would seal his brand — forever associated with Nazism; joined the Nazi Party and was given the membership #508,889. It appears his reasons were twofold: #1, as a businessman, it made commercial sense, making it easier to win contracts from the Nazis. #2, Boss believed that Hitler was the only man who could lift Germany out of its economic doldrums. Like many, Boss found it hard to find employees during the war. This is where the story does turn truly dark. Unable to get workers, the company employed forced workers from the occupied countries. A Polish woman, Josefa Gisterek, sent to work at Boss October 1941; fled back home and eventually succumbed to a horrible end. Boss did an almost unprecedented thing; paid for the funeral and travel costs for her family. Boss was fined for his support of Nazism and was not allowed to vote. He died of a tooth abscess in 1948. There are other big name designers purportedly with Nazi ties: Luis Vuitton, Christian Dior; Coco Chanel and others.
[ References: Lumsden, Robin. A Collector’s Guide To: The Allgemeine – SS, Ian Allan Publishing, Inc. 2001, The Local. 2011-09-21. Archived from the original on 2017-03-23.;McNab, Chris. Hitler’s Elite: The SS 1939–45, Osprey 2013, p 90.;The New York Times. 1997-08-15. Retrieved 2008-09-25. White, Constance C. R..” The New York Times 19 August 1997: A20.; Givhan, Robin (1997-08-15). Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-11-08.(in German) (Forced Work in Metzingen), Ch.7: Die Firma Hugo Boss; Hall, Allan (May 15, 1999). “Hugo Boss facing Holocaust lawsuit”. Daily Record. Glasgow, Scotland. Retrieved 2011-10-03.; Abramovitch, Seth. . Archived from the original on 28 March 2013. Retrieved 4 April 2013.]
Jeanette Grattan Parker, Ph.D. is Founder/Superintendent Today’s Fresh Start Charter School 4514 Crenshaw BL. LA 90043, author writings all rights reserved © Inquiring Minds Want To Know. [email protected] 323-293-9826
