"IKEA to compensate East German prisoners for forced labor," 29 October 2024

Germany's Bundestag parliament and IKEA Deutschland... announced that the furniture colossus would contribute €6 million (roughly $6.5 million) to a new German government fund designed to compensate victims of the former East German dictatorship. The fund has yet to be approved by the German parliament, but this is seen as a formality...

IKEA was one of several western companies that subcontracted some production to the former East Germany during the Cold War...

"We deeply regret that this took place," IKEA Germany's CEO and CSO Walter Kadnar said on Tuesday. "Since it became known, that IKEA products were also made by political prisoners in the GDR, IKEA has consistently worked towards a resolution."...

"We gave our word to those affected that we would contribute to their support. Therefore, we welcome the implementation of the hardship fund and are happy to be able to keep our promise," Kadnar said. 

Dieter Dombrowski, the chairman of the UOKG, whose name in English roughly translates to the Union of Victims' Associations of Communist Dictatorship, praised IKEA for its approach... He said prisoners would work six-day weeks in three shifts, and be paid in the region of 18 to 25 East German Marks each week — a paltry sum even by East German standards...