15. Beautiful Outfits, Manufactured in Horrifically Evil Conditions
As WWII raged, Hugo Boss used hundreds of slave workers, mostly from Poland and France, to meet the increased wartime production demands. The slave laborers’ working conditions were dreadful. They were insufficiently fed, received inadequate medical care, and lived in unsanitary barracks infested with lice and fleas. During air raids, they were not allowed into shelters but had to remain in the factory. Those who attempted to flee were sent to even more dreadful places if captured, such as Auschwitz.
In the post-war de-Nazification, Hugo Ferdinand Boss was heavily fined, stripped of his voting rights, and prohibited from running a business. He appealed and managed to reduce the penalties, but the business ban was not lifted. So he was forced to transfer ownership and management of the company to his son-in-law. Ever since, Hugo Boss has, understandably, not been keen to celebrate its founder or discuss its prewar history. In 1999, the company finally agreed to contribute to a fund to compensate its former slave workers.
