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IKEA Apologizes for Using Forced Prison Labor in Communist-Occupied East Germany

Nov. 16, 2012 8:28pm Becket Adams

IKEA regrets use of forced labor in East Germany

East German border guards try to prevent a crowd climbing onto the Berlin Wall in 1989 (Getty)

First, yes: IKEA, the Netherlands-based manufacturer of infamously pliable furniture, used forced prison labor during the communist occupation of East Germany for production.

Second, they say they’re sorry.

The furniture giant expressed regret Friday that it benefited from the use of forced labor by some of its suppliers in communist East Germany more than two decades ago.

The company released an independent report showing that East German prisoners, among them many political dissidents, were involved in the manufacture of goods supplied to IKEA between 25 and 30 years ago.

The report concluded that IKEA managers were aware of the possibility that prisoners would be used in the manufacture of its products and took some measures to prevent this, but they were insufficient.

“We deeply regret that this could happen,” Jeanette Skjelmose, an IKEA manager, said in a statement. “The use of political prisoners for manufacturing was at no point accepted by IKEA.”

But she added that “at the time we didn’t have the well-developed control system that we have today and we clearly did too little to prevent such production methods.”

IKEA asked auditors Ernst & Young in June to look into allegations aired earlier this year by a Swedish television documentary, but first raised by a human rights group in 1982.

Rainer Wagner, chairman of the victims’ group UOKG, said IKEA was just one of many companies that benefited from the use of forced prison labor in East Germany from the 1960s to 1980s.

“IKEA is only the tip of the iceberg,” he told The Associated Press in an interview earlier this week.

Wagner said he hoped that IKEA and others would consider compensating former prisoners, many of whom carry psychological and physical scars from arduous labor they were forced to do.

East German guards watching over the Berlin wall during Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s visit on May 29, 1965 (J Wilds/Getty Images)

“IKEA has taken the lead on this, for which we are very grateful,” he told a news conference in Berlin, where the findings of the report were presented.

According to historians, forced labor was a widespread phenomenon in East Germany, which desperately needed hard Western currency to support its planned economy. The prison labor is estimated to have cost a tenth of what it would have cost in the west.

Some 23 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, experts are still trying to understand the full extent of the regime’s exploitation of its people.

Alexander Arnold, who was imprisoned in Naumburg in the early 1980s, said prisoners who failed to meet a quota were punished.

“If one delivered less than 80 percent of the expected standard, one was accused of sabotage,” he said.

Anita Gossler, a campaigner and former prisoner, said inmates of East Germany’s notorious Hoheneck prison for women were forced to sew bedclothes destined for foreign companies.

“There were three shifts each day,” she said. “You couldn’t refuse. If you did you were locked in a dark cell with bread and soup for at least three days.” Until 1980 prisoners also risked being sent to the ‘water room,’ where they had to stand knee-deep in cold water for hours.

Gossler said one inmate once managed to hide a note in a bed cover that was later discovered by an IKEA customer in the west — a rare piece of evidence of forced labor at the time.

Peter Betzel, the head of IKEA Germany, said the company would continue to support efforts to investigate the use of prisoners in East Germany.

Today, he said, “we can exclude with almost 100 percent certainty that such things as happened in East Germany happen elsewhere.”

(Photo Credit: Peter Turnley/Corbis)

The company has been embroiled in controversy in the past. A book published last year claimed IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad joined the Swedish Nazi party in 1943 when he was 17 and remained in contact with Nazi sympathizers until at least 1950.

The allegations by respected Swedish author and journalist Elisabeth Asbrink went beyond what Kamprad had previously acknowledged in a 1988 book about his life. At the time, he asked for forgiveness for his youthful “stupidity.”

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

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RELATED:

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The Associated Press contributed to this report. Front page photo courtesy the AP.

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Comments (68)

loveliberty83
Posted on November 17, 2012 at 1:41pm
every american shoild live overseas for a year & then you will understand why American military families who lived there can tell you what freedom is

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- muffythetuffy
  Posted on November 17, 2012 at 11:20pm
  THE STORE OF A MILLION SORROWS
  
  The table in your living room may be been made by a political prisoner being starved to death or beaten daily to work harder. Some Jew may have been forced to make a book shelf just like his grandmother was forced to do in a Death Camp. IKEA the million sorrow company.
  
  Report this comment
loveliberty83
Posted on November 17, 2012 at 1:39pm
as a mlitary family we went to east germany to buy feather beds-we had to be with amilitary in uniform-we drove through the corridor which was like a spy movie,if our car broke down we were only to talk to russian gaurds, if we sped we were given a ticket 2 the end of the drive, we got stopped @ the halfway mark by Russians who inspected our car. At checkpoint charlie we had machine guns pointed @ us, we saw people in line for cabbage, what we bought they made in a tear according to our American gaurd, i wa so glad to be an american after that visit

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zoro51
Posted on November 17, 2012 at 1:18pm
better made in germany than in china… still ****** stuff.. falls apart so easily n DOESNT get put togeather like the diagrams show.. so something IS wrong…

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- FunFunFun
  Posted on November 17, 2012 at 10:00pm
  People confuse Chinese with Japanese, thinking they are all the same. But, each Asian country has its own characteristics, much like the European countries.
  
  Another factor is that Communist Mao had tried to kill most of the brains and conscience of China (religious leaders, bankers, land owners, business owners, teachers, media, basically the educated…).
  
  After that, the new generation were brought-up thinking all Capitalists are corrupt. So, they think all Capitalists in the world just want to make a buck; so they shall.
  
  Report this comment
Elena2010
Posted on November 17, 2012 at 12:23pm
The US also benefits fm prison labor. UNICOR is the US federal prison manufacture label.

The difference is that US prison labor is fm criminals while in the “Marxist utopia,” it comes fm political prisoners, too.

How many old jokes are there out there abt going to prison to make license plates, too. Most countries do “employ” inmate/offenders.

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castious
Posted on November 17, 2012 at 11:59am
Sorry Graylin46 the Netherlands did not pay back it was Finland the only country to pay its war debt

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castious
Posted on November 17, 2012 at 11:54am
Sorry the Netherlands didnt pay back any debt but the only contry that did is Finland

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not-so-nutty
Posted on November 17, 2012 at 11:38am
O.K. how about looking at this story from another standpoint. While East Germany offered its citizen fundamental rights to food, housing, employment, healthcare, and education most lived on the bare minimum. You had to stand in line, often for hours, to get food, and God forbid there was a special shipment like chocolate. So in a state planned economy that was on the brink of collapse, where infrastructure was rapidly declining and productivity was at a bare minimum as people had no incentive to strive, where do you think the funds for the prison system came from? Would the radical regime of the former GDR just have starved off its prison population? You can bet on it! And nobody would have been any wiser because there are no checks and balances in a socialistic/communistic system. So maybe IKEA and other Companies saved these prisoner’s lives. We need to learn to be objective when we judge others and people who think that political correctness and social justice are a blessing without dangers better wake up.

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HowardSternIsABigot
Posted on November 17, 2012 at 8:40am
As opposed to USA using Chiese communist slave labor? What a bunch of morons americans have become.

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joey g
Posted on November 17, 2012 at 7:27am
bought some of there stuff….”do not buy their stuff” its terrible , junkie, crap

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raderby
Posted on November 17, 2012 at 5:16am
hey MARY – I was in Berlin 1981-3. You would have fit right in on the DDR side of the wall.

go F yourself.

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- joey g
  Posted on November 17, 2012 at 7:24am
  coming to america soon,,brought to you be the communist democrats
  
  Report this comment
- johnpaulkuchtajr
  Posted on November 17, 2012 at 7:59am
  Hey America,
  
  Check out those stories of government camps.
  
  Comrade Obama has that in mind for all those capitalists out there once he cuts the _ _lls out from the military. How many ranking officers have been relieved thus far since Benghazi?
  
  Wake up liberals. You’re going to experience the attitude of your Muslim Brotherhood jailers to gays, women, dark skinned Americans, Christians and the intelligencia. Can’t happen here, you say! I never thought that we’d leave four Americans to die in the desert for political motives.
  
  “Remember Benghazi”
  
  Report this comment
Chuck Stein
Posted on November 17, 2012 at 4:12am
“IKEA, the Netherlands-based manufacturer of infamously pliable furniture”
Interesting, I totally thought that they were Swedish.

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- asybot12
  Posted on November 17, 2012 at 6:59am
  Yep I was born in Holland never ever heard of IKEA being dutch, no matter what it is a sad situation the reasons for the prisoners working for their daily bread IN IT SELF is not a bad idea better than what seems to be happening today with the prisoners “human rights”. Victims seem to have none.
  
  Report this comment
- TucsonTerpFan
  Posted on November 17, 2012 at 8:25pm
  Originally it was a Swedish founded store. It’s incorporated in the Netherlands for tax reasons.
  We have several older pieces of IKEA furniture we bought years ago in (then West) Germany. On the back of a large wall unit and another smaller piece it says, in English, “Swedish design made in DDR.” DDR was the “Deutsch Demokratische Repblik” or East Germany. As for the quality of the furniture, the three section wall unit still looks “ok,” and it’s not “falling apart.” It seems much of the older IKEA furniture may have been of better quality when the company was smaller and not so “world-wide” as it is today. The “forced labor” in the DDR was not directly “forced’ by IKEA but by the East German communist government that controled the economy and the contracts from IKEA.
  
  Report this comment
coldnorth
Posted on November 17, 2012 at 3:22am
I’m all for prisoners doing hard time and working, but I’ve got to wonder what got you thrown in the clink in East Germany. If we posters lived in Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, maybe even Russia, we would find ourselves in prison for what we post.
The Bill of Rights in a great thing. Don’t take it for granted.

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txn4justice
Posted on November 17, 2012 at 2:29am
Prisoners working? This is unheard of. The notion of some folks. I am just offended.

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- mtnvortex
  Posted on November 17, 2012 at 3:08am
  Most of these prisoners were guilty of disagreeing with their government. Perhaps you didn’t understand that.
  Do you agree with your government?
  
  Yeah…
  
  Report this comment
- loriann12
  Posted on November 17, 2012 at 6:36am
  Yea, I think Obama would label me a political disident (however you spell that – it’s before coffee).
  
  Report this comment
El Paso Girl
Posted on November 16, 2012 at 10:55pm
Soooo… What are the prisoners suppose to do all day???? Work out with weights…watch TV???? go out side and play baseball??????or learn how to become a lawyer????? It’s over and done with…….Are they doing it now??????? Leave IKEA alone……..

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- GBTVFan_Non_American_Overseas
  Posted on November 17, 2012 at 1:32am
  I don’t think that arguing with you will have a happy ending, but let’s give it a try: Time doesn’t transform bad thing into good things. On the other hand, is valid when you are giving something to do to the prison’s population and pay them something. Work means dignity and they need to change their mindset to be part of the society when they do their time. But this is not the case; they were slaves of a tyrannical government. Most of them were just political prisoners, or average people sentenced for dreaming with liberty and free will.
  
  Finally, we got liberal companies like this one that all the time are trying to give the image that they have the moral high ground….and they never do!
  
  Report this comment
- txn4justice
  Posted on November 17, 2012 at 2:31am
  @EL PASO GIRL
  
  You are right.
  
  Report this comment
- mtnvortex
  Posted on November 17, 2012 at 3:11am
  You must not be old enough to remember the difference between East and West Germany. Many of these prisoners did nothing more than speak out against their communist government.
  
  Report this comment
whatthecrazy
Posted on November 16, 2012 at 10:23pm
Darn straight your SORRY as any before you that have treated humans as if they have no souls or feelings or just flat out NO human Rights at all.To hec with you and your apology……..

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- RepubliCorp
  Posted on November 16, 2012 at 10:59pm
  Hmmmmm stealing someone labor and giving the profit to someone else. Who would do that?
  
  Report this comment
- txn4justice
  Posted on November 17, 2012 at 2:32am
  The notion….of some folks
  
  Report this comment
grayling646
Posted on November 16, 2012 at 10:08pm
Must not be too sorry. Some one else had to bring this to light. Maybe they’re just sorry they got caught.

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- GBTVFan_Non_American_Overseas
  Posted on November 16, 2012 at 10:36pm
  Bingo!
  
  Report this comment
starman70
Posted on November 16, 2012 at 9:22pm
Can you imagine an America without Food Stamps, Welfare Payments, Rent Subsidies, Heating Assistance, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security checks. Think what that will do to the fabric of civilazition as we know it.

Just wait till the economy collapses and the streets become riot zones with gangs burning buildings, looting and killing citizens in the cities. Yhen imagind this spreading out of the cities into the suburbs. The government’s answer to the problem will be Concentration camps for those who refuse to follow government mandates. The excuse needed to foment a dictatorship. The American version of Hitler’s Brown Shirts taking over. Warrantless arrests and indefinate confinement.

Not only can it happen, it will! Glenn says that those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. How right he is. The liberal educational esablishment hasn’t taught real history in the past 40 years so not many are aware of Germany’s Weimar Republic. If the entire Eurozone collapses before we do, just sit back and watch the future of America. What happens there will happen here.

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- barber2
  Posted on November 16, 2012 at 9:52pm
  Agree. And our historically ignorant young, led by their Lefty con artist Pied Pipers, will end up in a Lefty hell. Guess when the American Public educational system was dumbed down so that no one had to ” feel bad” when they didn’t succeed with an A , it had terrible results . See the young/ middle aged who believe all of this Democrat tripe ? Proof that the classroom did not give them the knowledge to counteract the garbage that these Lefties are throwing at them. Sad for all of us.
  
  Report this comment
Platonician
Posted on November 16, 2012 at 9:06pm
“First, yes: IKEA, the Netherlands-based manufacturer of infamously pliable furniture”

You guys at the Blaze you need to be more careful. IKEA IS NOT BASED IN THE NETHERLANDS!!, IKEA IS BASED IN SWEDEN!! For God’s sake! While both countries are in Europe, there are big differences between them, politically, historically, etc. The Netherlands have been a champion of tolerance, free trade and capitalism for centuries. While the Netherlands fought against Nazi Germany courageously, suffering great loses (Anna Frank); Sweden was a twisted Nazi collaborator (neutral).
Sweden is a country of drunkards. A nanny state ruled by socialists and feminists who manage all aspects of people’s lives. No wonder their flagship company used forced labor.

Please correct that!

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- Lillith66
  Posted on November 16, 2012 at 10:24pm
  @Platonician, actually you are incorrect, their headquarters are indeed in the Netherlands. I think they moved in 1999.
  
  Address below. Say sorry now.. ;-)
  Bargelaan 20, Leiden, NL 2333CT, Netherlands
  
  Report this comment
- Lillith66
  Posted on November 16, 2012 at 10:25pm
  Sorry I have posted this more than once.
  
  @Platonician, actually you are incorrect, their headquarters are indeed in the Netherlands. I think they moved in 1999.
  Address below. Say sorry now.. ;-)
  Bargelaan 20, Leiden, NL 2333CT, Netherlands
  
  Report this comment
- Lillith66
  Posted on November 16, 2012 at 10:30pm
  Ug I hate when that happens..
  
  Report this comment
- Platonician
  Posted on November 16, 2012 at 11:26pm
  @Lillith66
  
  My point was that it’s a Swedish company, even if like many companies has a holding based in The Netherlands, which is irrelevant. It has also headquarters in PA, USA, that doesn’t make it an American company. Got it?
  
  “INGKA Holding is not an independent company, but is wholly owned by the Stichting Ingka Foundation.” “The Ingka Foundation is controlled by a five-member executive committee that is chaired by Kamprad and includes his wife and attorney.”
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA
  
  Report this comment
- Lillith66
  Posted on November 17, 2012 at 12:18am
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stichting_INGKA_Foundation
  
  Report this comment
- DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
  Posted on November 17, 2012 at 8:37am
  The Netherlands…Sweden…who cares? They’re both evil, White, Capitalist countries. Both should be invaded by UN troops and forcibly given back to the oppressed, native Neanderthals who originally settled them. Power to the people.
  
  Report this comment
- Xiccarph
  Posted on November 18, 2012 at 10:25am
  Amazing what a little research can reveal PRIOR to making erroneous statements!
  
  Report this comment
Mudd
Posted on November 16, 2012 at 9:06pm
Oops, we’re sorry, we didn’t think anyone would notice.

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- GBTVFan_Non_American_Overseas
  Posted on November 16, 2012 at 10:20pm
  Lol. “We did it because we never thought that wall would the torn down someday..”
  
  Report this comment
OlefromMN
Posted on November 16, 2012 at 9:02pm
Have you ever tried to assemble one of IKEA’s units? Methinks the prisoners got the last laugh.

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- Eastinfection
  Posted on November 17, 2012 at 6:39am
  lol… “cruel and unusual” punishment via tiny Allen-wrenches.
  
  Report this comment
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on November 16, 2012 at 8:54pm
Anyone who has kids uses forced labor. Besides, now we know why they put their instructions in those stupid pictures, so their labor force can understand it.

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marybethelizabeth
Posted on November 16, 2012 at 8:49pm
Yesterday’s story.

Why is theblaze always playing catchup?

Or did you run out of fantasy conspiracy stories and decide to publish some real news for a change?

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- barber2
  Posted on November 16, 2012 at 9:06pm
  Comrade Mary: how tired we are of the Lefty snark and smears. We don’t like goons. We don’t like mobs. And we don’t like smears. You offer nothing but insults and annoyance. You are true Far Left Democrat. Have you been fitted for your jack boots yet? You guys in uniform yet ? Get a life. Or better yet, get a decent attitude. Being an Obama parrot Head provides little chance for career advancement. But guess with his failed economy, you don’t expect much…
  
  Report this comment
- The Giver
  Posted on November 16, 2012 at 10:22pm
  Is that why you come back, because of the fantasy conspiracy stories. Don’t want to actually purchase a book like Agenda21 from Glenn Beck on Amazon? Free stuff… Ok, I get it.
  
  Report this comment
danbarlinmar
Posted on November 16, 2012 at 8:47pm
what a bizarre story.

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- Platonician
  Posted on November 16, 2012 at 9:04pm
  “First, yes: IKEA, the Netherlands-based manufacturer of infamously pliable furniture”
  
  You guys at the Blaze you need to be more careful. IKEA IS NOT BASED IN THE NETHERLANDS!!, IKEA IS BASED IN SWEDEN!! For God’s sake! While both countries are in Europe, there are big differences between them, politically, historically, etc. The Netherlands have been a champion of tolerance, free trade and capitalism for centuries. While the Netherlands fought against Nazi Germany courageously, suffering great loses (Anna Frank); Sweden was a twisted Nazi collaborator (neutral).
  Sweden is a country of drunkards. A nanny state ruled by socialists and feminists who manage all aspects of people’s lives. No wonder their flagship company used forced labor.
  
  Please correct that.
  
  Report this comment
- charles116
  Posted on November 16, 2012 at 9:07pm
  Sounds like Nazi Germany
  
  Report this comment
- Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
  Posted on November 16, 2012 at 9:11pm
  @Platonician
  You forgot the biggest thing Sweden is known for, Porn, so to recap, drunkards, socialist, labor camps, Nazi Collaborators and Pornographers. Sounds like Detroit on a Saturday Night.
  
  Report this comment
- grayling646
  Posted on November 16, 2012 at 10:07pm
  I also seem to remember reading that the Netherlands is the only country to ever pay back a loan from the USA. Can some one confirm that (or not)?
  
  Report this comment
- Lillith66
  Posted on November 16, 2012 at 10:22pm
  @Platonician, actually you are incorrect, their headquarters are indeed in the Netherlands. I think they moved in 1999.
  Address below. Say sorry now.. ;-)
  Bargelaan 20, Leiden, NL 2333CT, Netherlands
  
  Report this comment
MrButcher
Posted on November 16, 2012 at 8:37pm
Das ist mein Land!

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Mr.Fitnah
Posted on November 16, 2012 at 8:33pm
Yeah whoop de do Now they make there stuff in prison camps of China , Soon In prison camps in the USA OooH Sooo Soowie

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- rickc34
  Posted on November 16, 2012 at 8:42pm
  Boycott IKEA products . And yes Obama will be using the same kind of tactics here in the near future.
  
  Report this comment
- mercenary4freedom
  Posted on November 16, 2012 at 8:59pm
  I’m afraid so RICK. Thats why we need to get rid of him & his ilk ASAP.
  
  I’ve known about this commie operation for a while now and tell anyone that considers shopping there that they had political prisoners making their merchandise. I wouldn’t step foot in one of these eurotrash markets if it were the last one.
  
  Report this comment

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