CNN —Furniture giant IKEA has agreed to pay 6 million euros ($6.5 million) towards a government fund compensating victims of forced labor under Germany’s communist dictatorship, in a move campaigners hope will pressure other companies to follow.
Political as well as criminal prisoners in Germany during the Cold War era were forced to build flatpack furniture for IKEA.
IKEA representatives at the time were likely aware that political prisoners were being used to supplement labor, the report found.
Sven Hoppe/picture-alliance/dpa/AP“After it became known that the company was involved in forced prison labor, IKEA accepted our invitation to talk.
According to UOGK, IKEA is one of many companies that benefitted from forced prison labor in communist Germany.
Persons:
Ernst, Young, Andreas Hampel, East Germany’s, Walter Kadner, “, ”, Dieter Dombrowski, UOGK, Sven Hoppe, ” Dombrowski, Rainer Wagner, Evelyn Zupke
Organizations:
CNN, IKEA, German Democratic, Getty, Union of Victims ’, of Communist, IKEA Germany
Locations:
Germany, East Germany, Soviet Union, German Democratic Republic, Rothensee, IKEA Germany, GDR, Eching, Bavaria