Rediscovery and Its Discontents

“It’s pretty extraordinary that such a long time after the war, we are still rediscovering this,” Mr. Eckstein said.

Though the Nazi past of companies like Hugo Boss, which in 2011 apologized for using workers from forced labor camps after a book it commissioned revealed that its founder was a loyal party member, and Adidas and Puma, which were created by the brothers Adolf and Rudolf Dassler, likewise members of the Nazi party, has been explored and acknowledged, little focus has been given to the companies that disappeared under the Nazi regime.

Certainly in the potted histories of fashion, the German contribution is rarely mentioned. (Ask fashionistas who invented ready-to-wear, and a likely answer is Yves Saint Laurent — in the 1960s.)

“There was a reluctance to really think about the role of Jews in German culture and society, not least because many of the incumbents were occupying positions that had been formerly held by the victims of racial persecution,” said Harold James, a German economic historian at Princeton University. “The real debate or rediscovery of the German past only started after a generational change, but by that time a great deal of the practical memory of what was lost had vanished.”

In some instances, as with Jewish scientists or artists or musicians, the task of recovering the past is easier because of the presence of books and paintings and recordings, but, he said, “fashion is not as well or clearly documented.”

Ms. Mayer also attributes the oversight to a general cultural prejudice against fashion, which was viewed as less serious, less worthy of study, than, say, philosophy and opera.