London, Sept 6 (ANI): Swedish furniture giant Ikea used prisoners of East Germany as 'slave labour' to make furniture, it has emerged.
According to Stasi records discovered by the German television company WDR, Ikea developed strong links with the communist state in the 1970s, and opened a number of manufacturing facilities, one of which used political prisoners to construct sofas.
Records claim that the factory in Waldheim was next to a prison, and inmates were used as unpaid labour, the Telegraph reports.
According to Stasi files, Ikea's founder Ingvar Kamprad, said he had no official knowledge of the use of prison labour, but if it did indeed exist, 'in the opinion of Ikea it would be in society's interests'.
Hans Otto Klare, who was sent to Waldheim prison for trying to escape to West Germany, told WDR about his time making hinges and other components for Ikea furniture and described conditions in the factory as harsh.
"Our labour team lived on the upper floor of the factory with the windows covered," the paper quoted Klare, as saying.
"The machines were on the lower floor, and you had little rest. On the factory floor you had no proper seating, no ear protection, no gloves. Conditions were even more primitive there then in the rest of the GDR. It was slave labour," he added. (ANI)
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