IKEA’s German branch announced Tuesday that it will contribute $6.5 million to support victims of the former communist East German regime. During the 1970s and ’80s, the company used the forced labor of political prisoners in East Germany to help keep prices low. It’s one of many companies that exploited the cheap source of labor. Host Marco Werman speaks to a former East German political prisoner, Peter Keup, who was forced to work during his internment. He’s now a historian with the Union of Victims’ Associations of Communist Tyranny and says IKEA’s acknowledgement of its past is unusual.
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