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Jewish German
Fashion Industry
Flourished,
Then Perished
Under Nazi Rule
By Dina Gold
It was the golden age of German fashion, created by Jewish designers and
business owners and centered in the city of Berlin. But within a decade, as
the Nazis came to power and implemented their platform of extreme anti-
Semitism, it was gone. And, today, it is little remembered.
“It’s an absolute disgrace how today’s German fashion industry has cloaked
itself in willful collective amnesia about the incalculable debt they owe their
Jewish predecessors,” says Uwe Westphal, a Berlin-based journalist and
author who has spent 30 years researching and writing about the Nazi
destruction of the Jewish contribution to Germany’s once flourishing
fashion industry.
Westphal, who is not Jewish, wants the world to know that hundreds
of Jewish fashion entrepreneurs flourished in the Mitte district of
central Berlin prior to World War II, influencing clothing styles far
beyond the borders of Germany until they were snuffed out within
a decade.
As a one-time fashion reporter for Der Tagesspiegel newspaper,
Westphal has researched archives in Germany, Poland, Israel,
Australia, the United States and United Kingdom, and corresponded
with and interviewed sources across the globe, including
Jewish designers and former business owners.
10 10 WINTER 2019