Broken Threads: The Destruction of the Jewish Fashion Industry in Germany and Austria

Broken Threads tells the story of the destruction of the Jewish fashion industry under the Nazis.Jewish designers were very prominent in the fashion industry of 1930s Germany and Austria. The emergence of Konfektion, or ready-to-wear, and the development of the modern department store, with its innovative merchandising and lavish interior design, only emphasized this prominence. The Nazis came to see German high fashion as too heavily influenced by Jewish designers, manufacturers and merchandisers. These groups were targeted with a campaign of propaganda, boycotts, humiliation and Aryanization.Broken Threads chronicles this moment of cultural loss, detailing the rise of Jewish design and its destruction at the hands of the Nazis. Superbly illustrated with photographs and fashion plates from the collection of Claus Jahnke, Broken Threads explores this little-known part of fashion and of Nazi history.

Table of Contents:
Introduction - The Holocaust and Cultural Loss, Roberta S. Kremer, Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre 1. From Rags to Riches - Jews as Producers and Consumers of Fashion, Christopher Friedrichs, University of British Columbia 2. Architecture of the German Department Store, Christian Schramm, architect, Gelsenkirchen-Buer, Germany 3. Contributions of Jewish Fashion Designers in Berlin, Ingrid Loschek, University of Applied Sciences in Pforzheim, Germany 4. Destruction of a Culture and an Industry, Irene Guenther, Rice University 5. Fashion Disappears from Germany, Charlotte Rymann Schallie, University of British Columbia 6. Ridding Vienna's Fashion and Textile Industry of Jews During the Nazi Period, Gloria Sultano, independent scholar

About the Author :
Roberta S. Kremer teaches Museum Studies in the Dept. of Anthropology at University of British Columbia and is also currently Executive Director of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. She is editor of Memory and Mastery, a study of Primo Levi, and has curated numerous exhibitions.

Review :
'The terrible story of the Holocaust overshadows all else, including the story of Jewish life in the years leading up to the catastrophe. Broken Threads opens a fascinating window on the world of German and Austrian Jewry before the war. The two Jews to whom the book is dedicated, Paul Meyer in Cologne, producer of fine lace, and Leonore Freiman, then at Fashion School in Vienna, were typical of the creative, vibrant commercial and artistic life that was blotted out. Here it can be seen in all its pre-war glory: with a variety that spans architecture, design, manufacture and marketing. Such elegant men. Such chic women. Such confident poses. Such state of the art clothing.'Sir Martin Gilbert'Richly illustrated and clearly written, Broken Threads examines the role of the Jews in the German fashion industry and the assault of the Nazis against those very Jews and against that industry. It illumines both visually and intellectually the role of Jews in German culture and commerce and