IKEA will pay six million euros for its sins in the GDR ᐉ News from Fakti.bg – World News

They have been waiting a long time to hear this news: IKEA will pay compensation to thousands who went through prisons in the former GDR, where they did forced labor for the Swedish furniture company . For this purpose, the company has prepared six million euros.

Therefore, IKEA has been fulfilling its promise since 2012, when the first report on exploited prisoners in the GDR was published. It became clear from him that several West German companies also participated in the forced labor system, such as the Quelle catalog company or the Aldi supermarket chain.

The fact that IKEA sets the stage is historically important, the federal representative for the victims of the dictatorship of the United Socialist Party of Germany (GESP – the communist party in the former GDR) Evelyn Zupke told DV. In her words, IKEA shows how people who suffered during the dictatorship can be helped even today.

The money pledged by IKEA will go into a general fund to help people in trouble, which the Bundestag plans to pass by the end of this year. Until now, such a fund exists only in the eastern regions of Germany, and only the victims of the dictatorship living on the territory of the former GDR have entitled to compensation from them. With the new fund, benefits will also be available to people living in the western regions in the meantime.

The money will be enough for 2000 people

According to the calculations of the representative for the victims of the GESP dictatorship, only the millions from IKEA will provide financial support for about 2000 affected. In addition, Zupke hopes that German companies will follow their example and join the fund to help the victims. However, so far other companies have shown no desire to compensate people who have done forced labor in the past. A study by Humboldt University in Berlin, published in April 2024, was also inconclusive – although it listed several such cases. For example, it is alleged that political prisoners were forced to make pantyhose which were sold at Aldi.

Camera for Quelle and Otto

The study describes how products made with forced labor in the GDR ended up in West German stores and mail order catalogs. Prisoners in Cottbus are forced to produce Praktica cameras for Quelle and Otto customers. Audicassettes for the Magna company are made by prisoners in Dessau. The regime in the GDR thus obtained urgently needed hard currency from foreign capitalism.

The system of forced labor in GDR prisons existed for several decades: “The use of prisoners was intended to exploit their labor for the benefit of the state’s planned economy,” the study says. “From the 1950s to the end of the GDR in the 1990s, between 15,000 and 30,000 prisoners were subjected to forced labor each year and were mostly used in areas where civilians did not want to work because of their poor conditions.”

Isolation for unstable prisoners

Prisoners who resisted harsh punishments risked being stripped of privileges such as receiving visitors and cargo to being sent to solitary confinement with minimal rations for three weeks. “We deplore and condemn the apparently widespread practice in the former GDR of using political prisoners and convicts for forced labour,” said a spokesman for supermarket chain Aldi. after the report was published.

Why is Aldi refusing to pay benefits?

However, Aldi is unlikely to follow IKEA’s example – although it is known since 2013 that the discounter’s products were also produced in the infamous Hoeneck women’s prison in the GDR. “Due to the time distance from the events, however, the details cannot be processed to the extent necessary for the final assessment of the compensation decision,” explained Aldi’s negative position.

For now, IKEA is the only company participating in the fund to help forced workers. The agreement that has now been reached is the result of long-term negotiations between IKEA, Federal Commissioner Evelyn Zupke and the Union of Commissioners for Victims of Communist Rule in the GDR, whose chairman Dieter Dombrowski was also providing forced labor in a GDR prison in the 1970s. “Together we went out on this path and IKEA has met those affected by this. The decision shows the direction and we hope that other companies will follow IKEA’s example,” Dombrovski told DV.

Author: Marcel Furstenau