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

by Roberta S. Kremer (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781845206604
Publisher:	Berg Publishers
Publication date:	12/01/2006
Pages:	136
Sales rank:	585,680
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.38(d)

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.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Holocaust and Cultural Loss—Roberta S. Kremer * From Rags to Riches: Jews as Producers and Consumers of Fashion—Christopher Friedrichs * Architecture of the German Department Store—Christian Schramm * Contributions of Jewish Fashion Designers in Berlin—Ingrid Loschek * Destruction of a Culture and an Industry—Irene Guenther * Fashion Disappears from Germany—Charlotte Rymann Schallié * Ridding Vienna's Fashion and Textile Industry of Jews during the Nazi Period—Gloria Sultano

Editorial Reviews

Richly illustrated and clearly written—it illumines both visually and intellectually the role of Jews in German culture and commerce and the creative contribution of Jews to German and Austrian national life. By focusing on one industry, Broken Threads explores in rich detail some of the largest issues in both Weimar culture and the Nazi assault against the Jews.” —Michael Berenbaum, former Project Director, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

“The vibrant rags-to-riches spectrum of direct Jewish involvement in the fashion industries of Germany and Austria is brought to life in this important new book which details the insidious dismantling and destruction of an entire culture.” —Sima Godfrey, Director, Institute for European Studies, University of British Columbia

From the Publisher

The vibrant rags-to-riches spectrum of direct Jewish involvement in the fashion industries of Germany and Austria is brought to life in this important new book which details the insidious dismantling and destruction of an entire culture.

Sima Godfrey

Richly illustrated and clearly written--it illumines both visually and intellectually the role of Jews in German culture and commerce and the creative contribution of Jews to German and Austrian national life. By focusing on one industry, Broken Threads explores in rich detail some of the largest issues in both Weimar culture and the Nazi assault against the Jews.

Michael Berenbaum