The German fashion label Hugo Boss, famous for all sorts of quasi-lavish attire, fragrances and accessories, has a dark, sordid past. And, going by the fact that they were a company founded in 1924, in Germany, you can probably take a stab at what/who that past involved.

Yes, unfortunately, Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. The Nazis.

They (Boss and company) designed and supplied their uniforms.

There’s a good chance everyone would’ve remained either dumb or forgetful in regards to this seedy history, that is, if the company (not the flesh-and-blood Hugo Boss — he died in 1948 from a tooth abscess, of all things) hadn’t brought it back up again in 2011, when they published a book titled Hugo Boss, 1924-1945: The History of a Clothing Factory During the Weimar Republic and Third Reich and issued a formal apology.

It appeared on the Hugo Boss website, and, according to them, was posted to “express its profound regret to those who suffered harm or hardship at the factory run by Hugo Ferdinand Boss under National Socialist rule”.

Not a full apology, really. It doesn’t mention the Holocaust or World War II — just the 180 workers that were forced into labor in their factory (mostly women and 40 French POWs). But, yeah.

Perhaps they’re waiting for another 60 years?

Haaretz