Forced Labor in GDR Women’s Prisons for ALDI

to German version

Before the fall of the inner-German border, ALDI imported products from Eastern Germany (GDR), some of which were manufactured by political prisoners under forced labor. Millions of women’s tights made their way from the „VEB Esda Thalheim“ production facility in the GDR women’s prison Hoheneck to the ALDI supermarket shelves. They were sold in the budget segment under the names „Iris“ in northern and „Sayonara“ in southern Germany. The women, often imprisoned for political reasons, worked under inhumane conditions.

ALDI has committed itself to fair working conditions and employee rights in its Code of Conduct. The company however wants nothing to do with the shadows of the past. Despite solid evidence, ALDI is not willing to reach out to the victims of forced labor in GDR prisons. This is a slap in the face to those who had to toil for the profits of the company.

Does this meet ALDI’s understanding of fairness and sustainability? ALDI must confront its past and reach out to the victims!

Help us intensify the pressure on ALDI!

We need your support – ALDI must finally respond to the UOKG’s demands! There are plenty of creative ways for everyone to actively protest and draw attention to this injustice:

• Support our channels on Social Media on facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn! Please follow and subscribe to our channels, like, comment on and share our posts. All of this helps to raise awareness of the concerns of the UOKG and its members! THANK YOU!
• Bonus points for the distribution of our protest graphics and texts on your social media channels, e.g., on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, or Telegram. You can share them as a post or status update, or even as a comment on posts from official ALDI accounts.
  We would very much appreciate it if you used the hashtags #againstforcedlabor and #uokgev! The graphics are available for download as a package at the bottom of the page, or individually to the left. To download, right-click on the image and select ‚Save as…‘ There are five different designs in total.
• The next level: There’s probably an ALDI store near you whose shoppers would be interested in our customer information! You are welcome to download our protest leaflet at the bottom of this page and print it at home on any standard printer (color, A4, double-sided; there are two flyers per page, please cut in half). When you next visit ALDI, you can then distribute the flyers in creative ways to customers. We welcome you to send us photos and accounts of your protest activity to info@uokg.de!

Frequently Asked Questions ALDI und Force Prison Labor

Excerpt from the preliminary study “Forced Labor of Political Prisoners in Penal Institutions of the GDR”

Working conditions of political imprisonment in the GDR

Numerous eyewitness reports show that political prisoners in the GDR had to perform forced labor and often had to work under unhealthy, sometimes life-threatening conditions. The prisoners – unlike their civilian colleagues – could hardly refuse the work without risking severe penalties. The list of punitive measures ranged from the prevention of family contact, to solitary confinement with additional aggravating measures. The direct consequences of the often completely inadequate occupational health and safety were regular accidents at work and often long-term health and psychological problems after imprisonment.
The reported consequential damage caused by prison work is often not recognized and compensated accordingly by the responsible authorities and courts. The main argument here is that after so many years, no causal link can be established between the work as a forced laborer and the health problems today. Therefore, appropriate compensation is rarely granted to the victims. The results of the preliminary study create a scientifically sound basis for the recognition of the damage to health caused by forced prison labor.

Health effects of political imprisonment

In trauma research, it is undisputed that imprisonment for political reasons has a negative impact on the health of those affected. The preliminary study concludes that the consequential health conditions of former political prisoners were not caused solely by the traumatic stress caused by the prison situation, but also by the specific conditions under which those affected had to perform forced labor during their imprisonment.

Demonstration of a supply chain to prove the ALDI Group’s awareness and utilization of forced labor within GDR prisons

The results show that partial productions formed an important component of the GDR export economy. The GDR foreign trade company TextilCommerz was responsible for the VEB Strumpfkombinat (combine) Esda Thalheim. Federal German representative companies placed orders, production requests and quota requirements directly with TextilCommerz. The latter forwarded everything to the responsible combine and the executing VEB (= state owned company), in this case the VEB Esda Thalheim. In the so-called Esda complex, representative companies formed the link between the foreign trade company TextilCommerz and the companies in the GDR and the end sellers or bulk buyers, such as the company Nolte (ALDI Süd) or Albrecht Einkauf OHG (ALDI Nord) in the Federal Republic. The annual export quotas for women’s tights to the Federal Republic amounted to around 30 to 45 million pairs, including the share from prison labor.Of importance for this study is the use of female prisoners from the Hoheneck Prison for VEB Esda Thalheim, which can be documented on the basis of records. Reports from contemporary witnesses complete the picture.
Looking at the 1970s and 1980s, historian Tobias Wunschik calculated that forced laborers produced around 9 million pairs of tights per year, which accounted for around 10 percent of total production and was equivalent to around 8 million Valutamark per year.

Using the example of Sayonara tights, the preliminary study was able to document the coordination of export quotas, the receipt of individual and collective orders and the call-off of products by TextilCommerz directly from the VEB Feinstrumpfhosenwerk Esda Thalheim. This was possible, for example, on the basis of the invoice and individual order numbers issued by the VEB, to which the corresponding product – in this case the Sayonara tights – and the quantity called off could be assigned. On some of the forms for calculating the individual price, for example 0.68 GDR marks for the tights produced in prison, the date, the intermediate dealer,  the end customer, the exporting foreign trade company, the producing VEB, the quantity called off and the margins in the delivery schedule, the scope of delivery of 2000 pallets weighing almost 400 tons, the exporting delivery company (Deutrans), the border checkpoint to be used and the commission for the intermediate dealer can be seen.
It can also be seen that the production from the VEB Esda Thalheim factories was combined with that of the penal system to form a complete export delivery. The goods were prepared for the end customer in a manner typical of the market, priced, packaged and made ready for dispatch. The dispatch of the goods was reported by the VEB to the foreign trade company with instructions for invoicing.
The supply chain is already closed with the knowledge of these papers by the German customers, but certainly with the knowledge of the present testimony of a civilian employee in the Hoheneck women’s prison, who had to drive delivery vans bearing the labels of the companies Aldi, Karstadt and Quelle to the prison yard to load them with (among other things) tights and then hand them back to the West German driver in front of the prison. (final report preliminary study, p. 13-17)

The quintessence of the preliminary study

It was established that a causal link between forced prison labor and consequential health damage or impairments in those affected by forced prison labor is extremely likely. In addition, it was possible to work out from the supply chains that companies that benefited from forced prison labor had or could have had knowledge of the circumstances of production. Many files have been analysed for the first time as part of this study, but by no means all of them have been fully evaluated. This is to be done in greater depth in a planned main study.
The results of the preliminary study have created an initial basis for reorganizing a state support and compensation services for those affected and finally putting into practice the announcements made by the current federal government in the coalition agreement.

Forced labor in Hoheneck.
Photo: Archiv Stiftung Sächsische Gedenkstätten

Women’s tights made in Hoheneck and sold by ALDI

Source Information:
Final Report for the Preliminary Study „Forced Labor of Political Prisoners in Penal Institutions of the GDR“

Authors:
Samuel Kunze (Humboldt University of Berlin, Chair of East European History)
Dr. Markus Mirschel (Humboldt University of Berlin, Chair of East European History)

Participating Institutions:
Humboldt University of Berlin, Chair of East European History
Union of Victims‘ Associations of Communist Tyranny e.V.

Project Lead:
Prof. Dr. Jörg Baberowski (Humboldt University of Berlin, Chair of East European History)

Funding Agency:
The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM)

Subject-related Links and Literature

All sources are in german, but it may be worth a try to use auto-translation.

Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung – (Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship)
A comprehensive dossier about the Hoheneck women’s prison with many further links

Hoheneck Blog
A blog by and about former inmates of the Hoheneck women’s prison (active from 2009-14)

Zwangsarbeit DDR (Forced Labor GDR)
Web portal designed by the UOKG that provides information and materials on the subject of forced labor in the GDR (2024)

Ausgebeutet für den Klassenfeind – Wie DDR-Zwangsarbeiter für Westfirmen leiden mussten
(Exploited for the Class Enemy – How GDR Forced Laborers Suffered for West German Companies)
Documentation by Achim Reinhardt and Claudia Butter (Report Mainz) from SWR (Southwest Broadcasting) (2015)

Der Hoheneck-Komplex (The Hoheneck Complex)
Multimedia production by MDR (Central German Broadcasting) (2021)

Sachse, Christian: Das System der Zwangsarbeit in der SED-Diktatur. Die wirtschaftliche und politische Dimension
(The System of Forced Labor in the SED Dictatorship. The Economic and Political Dimension)
Leipzig, 2014

Thiemann, Ellen: Wo sind die Toten von Hoheneck?
(Where are the Dead of Hoheneck?)
München, 2014, 2. Edition

Thiemann, Ellen: Stell dich mit den Schergen gut
(Get Along Well with the Henchmen)
München, 1990

Wunschik, Tobias: Knastware für den Klassenfeind: Häftlingsarbeit in der DDR, der Ost-West-Handel und die Staatssicherheit (1979-1989)
(Prison Goods for the Class Enemy: Prisoner Labor in the GDR, East-West Trade, and the State Security Service (1979-1989))
Göttingen, 2014

Women’s tights made in Hoheneck and sold by ALDI