I've heard many rumors about that the SS uniform was designed by the same company that after the war renamed itself to HUGO BOSS. I first found it hard to belive and thought it was a myth, buth on the other hand many german companies renamed themselves after the war. Could this be possible, I now that I'm not the only one who have heard this, could anyone please show me some evidence for that this is true?
Hugo Boss faced a bigger scandal in August 1997, when the Washington Post revealed that the company manufactured Nazi uniforms during World War II.
A spokesperson at the time said: "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 trying to find what was going on. This is the first time we have heard of the history."
Boss founded the company in 1923 and, according to the Washington Post, the company struggled for a time, fell into bankruptcy and during the war made the uniforms worn by the German SS, storm troopers, Wehrmacht and Hitler Youth. The paper also speculated that prisoners from Nazi concentration camps were forced to work in the factory.
Following the fall of Hitler and the Third Reich, Boss is alleged to have been ostracised as an 'opportunist', stripped of his voting rights and fined Dm80,000.
It wasn't until the early 1970s that the company recovered and began manufacturing expensive men's suits and sportswear, before going public in 1985. Observers concluded that hundreds of German companies were involved in producing material for the Nazi war effort and that chapter in history should be left in the past.
A company that became today's Hugo Boss was one of the many firms involved in creating textiles for the Waffen-SS. They didn't actually design the uniform and you won't find a "Hugo Boss" brand name tag in any (legit) SS uniform. Just about every German manufactuerer of the time was pressed into service for supplying the Wehrmacht and the various uniformed services of the Third Reich. It doesn't necessitate sponsporship of their "customers" activities, nor does it mean they should be associated with any atrocities committed by them. It simply means they were a German company who manufactuered textiles at the time of the war - it was expected of them to help the war effort.
