Nazi uniform maker Hugo Boss denies Uyghur slave labour claims
Campaigners say the German fashion giant has questions to answer about its Chinese supply chain
Michael Daventry is Jewish News’s foreign and broadcast editor
Fashion giant Hugo Boss, which notoriously used forced labour to make uniforms in Nazi Germany, has dismissed mounting allegations that it relies on a modern-day equivalent supply chain using China’s persecuted Uyghur minority.
Human rights groups this week accused the luxury brand’s suppliers of using labour transfer schemes, a method where the Chinese government is said to forcibly move members of the Uyghur minority to work in factories outside of their home province of Xinjiang.
Many relocations happen against their will and some people are sent from so-called “re-education camps”, campaigners say.
Amid growing international scrutiny of China’s treatment of its Uyghur population, there is renewed focus on Western fashion brands that use suppliers and sub-suppliers to buy and process Xinjiang cotton.
The International Olympic Committee was criticised this week for selecting a Chinese textiles company with links to a factory in Xinjiang as a supplier to this year’s Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
The IOC gave a uniform contract for the Tokyo 2021 Summer Olympics and the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics to a Chinese textiles company that has an affiliated factory in Xinjiang and that openly advertises its use of Xinjiang cotton. https://t.co/FaKerOf6y4
— Jaya Pathak (@jayapathak_) April 6, 2021
When asked by Jewish News, Hugo Boss did not respond directly to allegations that its Chinese suppliers and affiliates use forced labour or engage in human rights abuses.
“All employees working for Hugo Boss suppliers world-wide must be free to choose the ways and means of the employment they pursue,” the company said.
“We scrutinise all direct suppliers worldwide and demand proof that the materials used to manufacture our goods are produced according to these values and standards. This also includes identifying sub-suppliers and the production facilities they use for our goods.”
It added that it had not procured any goods from direct suppliers in Xinjiang, but did not address questions about the use of labour transfer schemes among Hugo Boss’s indirect suppliers.
The firm referred Jewish News to an undated statement on its website that said: “Effective starting October 2021, our new collections have been verified in line with our global standards once again.”
Luke de Pulford of the World Uyghur Congress said: “Hugo Boss has not learned from history. It should know that cooperating with authoritarian regimes doesn’t end well.
“It will be forced to make a choice – human rights or the concentration camps of Xinjiang.”
Hugo Boss apologised a decade ago after it emerged its founder Hugo Ferdinand Boss was an active Nazi Party member who joined before Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933.
Boss, who died in 1948, oversaw a production line that supplied uniforms for many sections of the party, including organisations like the SS and Hitler Youth.
Its factory used forced labour, including Polish and French workers.
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